The golden eagle is 30 and 40 inches long. It has brown feathers on most of its body, except for gold colored feathers on the nape of its neck. It has a hooked beak, yellow eyes and legs that are feathered all the way to its talons. Its wingspan is six to seven feet.
Females are much larger than males.
The golden eagle breeds from Alaska, Canada and the western United States east to Kansas and the Dakotas and south to Mexico. It is a short distance migrator and winters in southern Alaska and Canada, the western United States and Mexico. It can also be found in Europe and Asia. The golden eagle makes its home in a wide variety of habitats including open grasslands, shrub-land, canyons, wetlands, and mountain forests. The golden eagle eats mostly small mammals like rabbits, marmots, squirrels and hares, but it also eats reptiles, birds, and insects.