Big Birds Of America

The Golden Eagle is found over most of North America, though much more commonly in the north and west. It is found also in the Old World, ranging south to North Africa and the Himalayas in Asia. It is more commonly a bird of the interior, choosing mountains for its home. It builds its nesting platform of sticks and straw in the tops of tall trees or on some inaccessible rocky ledge. The chief food is ground squirrels, prairie dogs, rabbits and other small mammals. These it catches by swooping swiftly down upon them. The eagles often hunt in pairs. There are usually two white eggs that are sometimes marked with blotches of brown. These are incubated for about a month and the young eaglets are covered with white down. It is almost three months more before they are fully feathered and able to soar out from the home nest to join the hunt with their elders. The immature golden eagle differs from the young bald eagle in having legs feathered down to the toes, and thus can always be identified, whereas in other respects they are much alike. Eagles have ever been irresistible targets for the rifleman.

The California Condor is the largest bird that flies in North America, and was once quite abundant in the coastal regions of California, and Oregon, and southward into Mexico. They are birds that mate for life, and when one of the pair meets with death, either from natural causes or due to man's intervention, there is one more lone bird. Some years ago ranchers put out poisoned meat to kill off coyotes. This was taken by the condors, and the species neared extinction. Now there are very few left and probably most of them are mateless birds. The nesting place is usually quite inaccessible, either on the bare floor of a cave-like recess high up among the rocks or in the hollow top of a stump many feet tall. There are one or two eggs, more often one, so the increase has been insufficient to keep the race alive. The young are covered with white down and have yellow bills. When they are feathered they are covered with sooty gray, and the neck and bill are black. There have been several of these birds in Zoological Parks in various parts of the country. They are gentle birds and solicitous parents.

Turkey Vultures when in flight are among the most graceful birds. Their flight seems so effortless and their widespread wings and long, rounded tails make lovely silhouettes as they soar about for hours at a time. Should a bird spy food below he would drop instantly, to be followed by one and another until all the vultures in the neighborhood were collected for a feast. They are scavengers and useful in keeping the ground clear of animal refuse. They are not so numerous in some parts of their range as formerly, because many have eaten poisoned meat put out for predatory' animals.