Immature Golden Eagle

Now I'm unsure if it's a Golden or Bald Eagle The beak colour draws me towards Golden but I'm sure someone will tell me.

I visited Sqaw Creek MO on Sunday and was greeted by 600,000 snow geese that was a sight to behold and a few images to prove the point.

I must admit this one grab my eye I liked the way the two trees compliment each other one in the other out of focus and they seem to encompass the subject.

Critique, Comments, Advice more than welcomed and thanks so much for the comments on my previous post.

Canon 1D3 Canon 800mm hand held using vehicle as hide.

1/1000sec f/5.6 ISO400 RAW to lightroom then resized to post. Also used workflow from last post as recommended.

Thanks for looking.

Barry

Nice encounter, you are certainly racking up your birds of prey!.

I think this is a young bald eagle from the amount of white in the breast feathers and undertail coloration,and greyish neck and throat regions but I am no expert on the American birds of prey. I think the older BA juvenile stage is flecked like this, but the GE stays a more uniform brown coloration

Update - see this from one of the US forums - looks bang on?

I am not sure, but well done on a fine shot.

I also think its an immature bald eagle. I would have liked a bit more separation from the branch in the background but everything else looks fine to me!
Rene de Heer

Without doubt it's an immature Bald Eagle at what stage does the beak change to orange?

Bang on indeed Mike thank you.

The bright yellow beak will be a sign of sexual maturity, the non breeding juveniles have duller bills - swan species for example the juveniles have dull brown bills, compared to the adult breeding birds red (Mute) or yellow (Tundra sp). The horny beak sheath layer is frequently shed at feather moult, more easily seen in species like the puffin and greenfinch which have much darker/subdued bills just before spring moult and brighter more colourful bills ready for the breeding season after the outer layer is sloughed off - the outer layer "weathers" and darkens off over the year.

Nice habitat shot Barry. I don't know if you were able to move when you took the shot but a step or two to your left would have put the bird with clean sky behind it instead of the oof trunk.

See what others mean re oof tree but some times we have to take what we can get,very good image.

Keith.

The image looks a liitle soft on the large version but hand held 800mm its a miracle it isn't blurred. Great image of a bald eagle although it seems to have plenty of head feathers! The oof rear branch I think is sufficiently OOF as not to be too distracting.

Nick.

All comments noted and appreciated. I too cast a thought at the "Bald". Positioning can be problematic at Sqaw Creek there is a ten mile circular dirt road around the refuge. If you're lucky and get a close encounter you don't have a choice often to reposition any movement spooks the subject and it's an opportunity lost. So clearly it's the vehicle as a hide and lady luck too.
Also opening a door and getting out is a no no. Unless you want endless birds butts. The winter has been so mild this year the spring species are arriving and spring migration is well under way.
.

You learn something new every day on UKNP. A fine capture for hand held.

A beautiful bird here, a tad central for me I'd crop abit off the LHS-but I'm not a great lover of cropping. Very nice image of a stunning bird