photoartflightGolden Eagle Vs. Bald Eagle
I was going through my backup drives to clear out images I do not need and came across these images of a Golden Eagle going at a Bald Eagle at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland. We had seen comments online that there was a Golden Eagle that was staying around the Refuge giving visitors a good chance of getting some photos. I probably posted some before but I re-adjusted some of the images for more detail and better color. All Images were taken with a Canon 400mm DO lens with a 2x Teleconverter giving me a focal length of 800mm on a Canon 1Ds MkII. With the 2X Teleconverter my f/stop wide open was f/8 so I stopped down 1 more f/stop to get a little more detail.
photoartflight 
Didn’t realise the Goldens were that much bigger!
They really are not that much larger! It is probably the angles of the 2 eagles in relation to each other. I was using a 400mm lens with a 2x teleconverter which probably helped that distorted size difference!
excellent shots! I didn’t realize that a Goldy was that much larger then a Baldie?
They really are not that much larger! It is probably the angles of the 2 eagles in relation to each other. I was using a 400mm lens with a 2x teleconverter which probably helped that distorted size difference!
They really are not that much bigger, it just looks that way because of the distance they were from each other and the angle of view to the camera! In the one image one was farther back in the background.
Awesome captures with side by side comparisons! Great work, Reed!!
Thanks so much Donna! Actually they are pretty much about the same size but how they were together made it look like one is much larger than the other!
I liked seeing their coloring differences, with the Golden being an immature. Yes, they are pretty much the same size in height, weight, and wingspan. It’s finding those differences that ID’s them as to which one. 🙂
Nice catches of this battle royale, Reed.
Thanks so much Steve! Bald Eagles are my favorite bird to photograph, getting a Bald & Golden Eagle together was a Great Opportunity!
Highly likely a once in a lifetime experience (I find the two species to generally keep their distance) and able to get memories in the tin for all of us to share in. Very nice!
Thanks so much! They were fun to watch & photograph!
Yes, Thanks! I have photographed hundreds of Eagles and this was the first time I saw this!