This bird is easy to identify because it’s half-again the size of a red tailed hawk: the golden eagle. Most people imagine that all of these eagles live in the mountains, but the authoritative work, Raptors of New Mexico (710 pages!) notes that “Golden eagles are resident through much of New Mexico, from desert grasslands to mountain meadows.” It also notes that in non-breeding seasons they’re commonly seen on power poles, and that’s what I saw today. These birds are three feet long with wingspreads of six to seven feet. They eat mostly mammals like rabbits and ground squirrels but they commonly take lambs and kids (of the goat kind).
Note the wingspread!
