The golden eagle – the true bird

Throughout human history, the golden eagle has been one of the most admired and recognised bird species, its image widely used in books and paintings. This continues today online, on TV and in films such as The Lord of the Rings. Golden eagles have been revered in many cultures around the world, from the ancient Greeks and Romans, to Native Americans and the nomadic peoples of northern Asia. Here in Scotland, golden eagles can be seen in the stone carvings of the Picts. In Gaelic the golden eagle is commonly called iolaire bhuidhe, but older Gaelic names celebrated its beauty, power and supposed supernatural abilities and included fireun, ‘the true bird’.

Despite this ancient reverence, golden eagles have suffered badly from persecution in Scotland in recent centuries, mainly due to conflict with red grouse shooting interests. They came close to following the fate of our other native eagle species, the white-tailed eagle, which was driven to local extinction in the early 20th century. Sadly, this persecution is not yet consigned to our past and there have been several high profile cases of illegal killing in recent years. Thankfully, Scotland’s population of golden eagles has generally continued to recover over the last few decades – over 500 pairs were recorded in the 2015 national survey – aided by protection in law.

The golden eagle has the most widespread distribution of any eagle species across the northern hemisphere but the Scottish Highlands are internationally renowned for their population. The beauty of the birds is complemented perfectly by the stunning Highland landscapes that make up their home. Their natural habitats include mountains and moorland, peatland and bogs, interspersed with patchy mosaics of regenerating native woodlands.

Golden eagles are long-lived birds (they can live for over 30 years) and they occupy permanent home ranges together with their mate – usually they pair for life. It’s part of my job as a ranger to monitor the breeding success of those nesting in areas under the National Trust for Scotland’s care at Kintail and West Affric.

This year was my 15th year of following their annual spring breeding cycle. I became quite attached to the birds of one range in my early days, as their breeding success was far better than any of the others – they successfully fledged young every year, bar one, from 2007–14. Then in 2015 they failed on eggs during a miserably wet spring. It was the last I ever saw of the female and I presume she died; she had been replaced by a new young female by the following winter. It has been fascinating to watch this new bird though – she failed on eggs in her first breeding attempt but successfully fledged a single chick the following year and has pretty much continued with the rich productivity of her predecessor ever since … clearly a good mate (the old male) and a good home range are important too!