Aquila chrysaetos
(Linnaeus, 1758) · speciesAt a glance
Sources13 archives
Databases and archives Aquila chrysaetos's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation19 languages↗
Animal Diversity WebUniv. of Michigan MZspecies account↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility774 280 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI19 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics27 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinegenome & karyotype↗
Paleobiology DatabasePBDB consortiumfossil record↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
IOC World Bird ListIOCbird checklist↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
The golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known birds of prey in the Northern Hemisphere. These birds are dark brown, with lighter golden-brown plumage on their napes. Immature eagles of this species typically have white on the tail and often have white markings on the wings. Golden eagles use their agility and speed combined with powerful feet and large, sharp talons to hunt a variety of prey, mainly hares, rabbits, and marmots and other ground squirrels. Golden eagles maintain home ranges or territories that may be as large as 200 km2. They build large nests in cliffs and other high places to which they may return for several breeding years. Most breeding activities take place in the spring; they are monogamous and may remain together for several years or possibly for life. Females lay up to four eggs, and then incubate them for six weeks. Typically, one or two young survive to fledge in about three months. These juvenile golden eagles usually attain full independence in the fall, after which they wander widely until establishing a territory for themselves in four to five years. Once widespread across the Holarctic, it has disappeared from many areas that are heavily populated by humans. Despite being extirpated from or uncommon in some of its former range, the species is still widespread, being present in sizeable stretches of Eurasia, North America, and parts of North Africa. It is the largest and least populous of the five species of true accipitrid to occur as a breeding species in both the Palearctic and the Nearctic. For centuries, this species has been one of the most highly regarded birds used in falconry. Because of its hunting prowess, the golden eagle is regarded with great mystic reverence in some ancient, tribal cultures. It is one of the most extensively studied species of raptor in the world in some parts of its range, such as the Western United States and the Western Palearctic.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology14
Life cycle & reproduction12
Diet & foraging6
Habitat & environment4
Physiology & chemistry1
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Aquila chrysaetos has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
Besides the big genome in the nucleus, cells carry a small, circular loop of DNA inside the cell's energy factories — the mitochondria. It is inherited almost only from the mother and is a leftover from ancient bacteria that moved into the cell. The mitochondrial markers above (ND*, COX, CYTB…) are read from exactly this loop. Outer ring = one strand, inner ring = the other.
The complete instruction manual Aquila chrysaetos carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
Chromosomes & ploidyhow the DNA is packaged
2n is the full chromosome count in a normal body cell; n is a gamete (egg or sperm), which carries half. Ploidy is how many complete chromosome sets each cell holds — 2× (diploid) is typical for animals, while higher levels (polyploidy) are common in plants. Click any value below to see the underlying records and sources.
2n 621×GoaT · Animal Chromosome Counts Database
Sequencing statusassembly quality — how far to trust these numbers
Assembly level tells you how finished the sequence is — from fragmented contigs, through scaffolds, up to a full chromosome-level assembly. BUSCO % estimates completeness: the share of genes expected to be present that were actually found. These describe the data quality, not the organism.
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The solid bar is the fossil range: the span between the oldest and the youngest fossil that palaeontologists have assigned to Aquila chrysaetos. Above itBeside it, the bars count how many dated finds fall in each slice of time; the tallest bar is labelled, and heights use a square-root scale so that thin slices stay visible next to rich ones. Read this as how well each stretch of time is preserved and studied — thick bars mean plenty of the right kind of rock and plenty of collectors, which is related to, but not the same as, how common it actually was. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil. Where the DNA reaches further back than the oldest fossil, the gap is hatched: the ghost lineage. It means the lineage was already out there, but has left us nothing we have dug up yet.
How it livedPBDB
Record type774 317 records
Origin
Range
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions47 of 80 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Stockholm, SE | 1 051 |
| Helsinki, FI | 262 |
| Salzburg, AT | 133 |
| US | 68 |
| Oulu, FI | 65 |
| Denver, US | 64 |
| Bergen, NO | 59 |
| Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record | 44 |
| Zoological Museum, Moscow Lomonosov State Universitylocation not on record | 40 |
| Tromsø, NO | 37 |
| Seattle, US | 36 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 36 |
| NSMKlocation not on record | 34 |
| Tacoma, US | 33 |
| EL PASO, US | 31 |
| München, DE | 28 |
| Kristiansand, NO | 26 |
| Barcelona, ES | 23 |
| Royal Saskatchewan Museumlocation not on record | 22 |
| Iowa City, US | 20 |
| Wuzhou, CN | 19 |
| Geneva, CH | 18 |
| Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 18 |
| Mongolian Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 18 |
| Washington State University, Charles R. Conner Museumlocation not on record | 16 |
| Zacatecas, MX | 14 |
| MZLUlocation not on record | 13 |
| University of Nebraska State Museumlocation not on record | 10 |
| Provincia di Livornolocation not on record | 10 |
| CBDClocation not on record | 8 |
| Ohio State University - Bird Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM)location not on record | 7 |
| Kuopio, FI | 7 |
| Ensenada, MX | 6 |
| Los Angeles, US | 6 |
| CASlocation not on record | 5 |
| Cambridge, US | 5 |
| Saint John, CA | 5 |
| Copenhagen, DK | 5 |
| Universidad Católica de Manizaleslocation not on record | 5 |
| Edmonton, CA | 5 |
| Albany, US | 5 |
| Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collectionlocation not on record | 4 |
| Liverpool, GB | 4 |
| San Diego, US | 4 |
| Philip L. Wright Zoological Museumlocation not on record | 4 |
| Science Museum of Minnesotalocation not on record | 3 |
| Rovaniemi, FI | 3 |
| Chicago, US | 3 |
| ASNHClocation not on record | 3 |
| University of Victorialocation not on record | 3 |
| Central Michigan University Museum of Cultural and Natural Historylocation not on record | 3 |
| South Kensington, GB | 3 |
| New Haven, US | 2 |
| Ithaca, US | 2 |
| Ciudad de México, MX | 2 |
| IMEDEAlocation not on record | 2 |
| Forssa, FI | 2 |
| St. Paul, US | 2 |
| Berkeley, US | 2 |
| Paris, FR | 1 |
| Brussels, BE | 1 |
| Bourges, FR | 1 |
| Indiana State Universitylocation not on record | 1 |
| Ugentlocation not on record | 1 |
| EEZAlocation not on record | 1 |
| European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT)location not on record | 1 |
| Universidad de Caldas (UCaldas)location not on record | 1 |
| Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology UB RASlocation not on record | 1 |
| Auckland, NZ | 1 |
| East Lansing, US | 1 |
| Zografou, GR | 1 |
| Delaware Museum of Nature and Sciencelocation not on record | 1 |
| STOCKHOLM, SE | 1 |
| SLU Artdatabankenlocation not on record | 1 |
| Louisiana State University, Museum of Zoologylocation not on record | 1 |
| RBINS-Scientific Heritagelocation not on record | 1 |
| Philadelphia, US | 1 |
| Natural History Museum, Aarhus Denmarklocation not on record | 1 |
| KU Leuvenlocation not on record | 1 |
| Frankfurt am Main | 1 |
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Where the DNA of Aquila chrysaetos was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.