Aquila chrysaetos
Golden eagles, being habitual scavengers at carrion, come into conflict with scavenging birds as well. They may encounter corvids at carrion sites and the large passerines are often highly cautious, either feeding some distance from the eagle or waiting until the eagle is done eating, lest they be predaceously grabbed. Occasionally, however, corvids may behave more boldly around golden eagles. In one case, a group of three black-billed magpies were observed to rob a golden eagle of its prey. Golden eagles also usually dominate both New World and Old World vultures. Smaller species like black vulture ("Coragyps atratus") in North America and Egyptian vulture ("Neophron percnopterus") in Eurasia are known to be occasionally hunted by golden eagles. Besides the Steller's sea eagle, the larger species of Old World vulture and the California condor ("Gymnogyps californianus") are the only noticeably larger raptorial birds that a golden eagle may encounter. The relationship between these large vultures and golden eagles can be highly contentious, with most sources favoring victory for the eagle due to its more aggressive disposition, much stronger feet and sharp talons. In one case, a colony of griffon vulture ("Gyps fulvus") was exceptionally able to displace a pair golden eagles from a cliff where they were trying nest so they could nest there themselves. On the other hand, a 5-year-old griffon vulture reintroduced into the wild in Bulgaria was thought to have been killed by a golden eagle. The golden eagle is a potential predator of the lammergeier which is often attracted to much the same habitat and prey as the eagle but often feeds largely on bone marrow from carcasses. It has been observed that both golden eagles and lammergeiers will readily pirate food away from each other. In the Southwestern United States, several conflicts between huge California condors and golden eagles have been observed. At carrion, victory during conflicts can go either way apparently. Recent observation have suggested that the critically endangered condors do not seem to actively defend their nesting territories from golden eagles but have been recorded gaining incidental protection from prairie falcons and common ravens, which both aggressively displaced the eagles from their own adjacent territories. The golden eagle is considered an occasional predator of California condors (especially fledglings) but there seems to be little in the way of eyewitness accounts to confirm this. It is possible that (as in the Bulgarian griffon vultures) the California condors have lost their natural cautiousness around eagles due to having been reintroduced from captivity.