| Summary: | Recently, there has been an increase in concern for Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) populations in the western United States. The concern stems from a marked decrease in the number of migrants and concern over an increase in future threats from a variety of anthropogenic factors including, but not limited to, energy development. Thus, there is a need for more information on Golden Eagles including: where they winter, longevity, causes of mortality and critical habit needs. Standard banding offers low encounter rates (<7%) and satellite telemetry is cost prohibitive. We began auxiliary marking Golden Eagles with vinyl wing-tag markers as a cost effective means to gather information on the species. Since 2004, we have wing-tagged over 214 eagles, and re-encountered 46 individuals, giving us a 21% encounter rate. This technique is proving considerably more effective than banding alone as a means of identifying individuals and receiving re-encounter information. We attribute this success, in part to internet information sharing and the increasing use of remote cameras set up on carcasses to view scavenger activity.
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