Sorry to be a nuisance once more, but having difficulty with this bird. This was in the South of France, so could easily be either species. When I first observed it, I assumed it was a Black kite (probably because I had read up a fair bit on them just before going) so it wasn't until I looked over the photos that it became absolutely clear that it was an eagle. At first I assumed Golden, but having looked further at dark phase Booted eagle images, I am leaning towards the latter. The fact that I thought it was a kite at all makes me think that it must have been small enough to not at least be an adult Golden eagle, but it was a good 70-80 metres away so who knows. Any help much appreciated .
@Westcoastperson I presume you are looking at images of the pale phase, which has quite a pale underside - if I understand correctly, a dark phase Booted eagle's underside is virtually identical to that of a Golden eagle, so probably wouldn't help. See the below link for a photo of the dark phase underside: https://ebird.org/species/booeag1 But yeah the underside was just like in the photo labelled dark morph above.
@amur leopard no it’s because I’m using my North American birds of prey guide which includes the undersides for Adult and Juvenile. So judging by the “fingers” on the sides of the wings I would say it’s booted. There’s about six on this animal which is much less than Golden Eagles and is the normal amount for Booted Eagles.
@Westcoastperson Thanks a lot for the help - that's a really nice lifer to get, particularly as it's quite a lucky one .
It's not a Golden, build is wrong among other things. Dark phase Booted Eagle should have "landing lights" on the shoulders should it not? I don't see them in either photo showing the top of the bird. Seems to be variable but typical of dark phase.
@Great Argus Only about three-quarters of dark-phase Booteds have the landing lights, so the lack of them isn't diagnostic. Haven't looked into @amur leopard 's photos in depth and it's a species I've only seen wild a couple of times but on the face of it the square-cut tail, six 'fingers' and pale wing patches look good for Booted to me - it's darker than the ones I've seen though.
@Great Argus @Maguari Thank you both Trawled through a ton of photos last night and was almost sure it was Booted by the end but just posted here to check. Not too many of the pictures I came across were nearly so dark as the specimen here but it couldn’t really be anything else if not a Golden.
