These massive predators of the sky can prey on a variety of animals including deer but typically predate on small mammals, rodents, and birds. Slightly smaller in size than bald eagle but with a larger wingspan, they are great soarers and have amazing vision which is 4x better than a human. While soaring, their great vision allows them to spot prey from hundreds of feet up or more! From high up, their suspecting prey is clueless of the threat looming overhead until it's too late, golden eagles can dive at speeds of up to 200 mph!

In Orange County, sighting of golden eagles are pretty rare although it's thought that there are 1-2 nesting pairs here in the Santa Ana Mountains. There can be other golden eagles passing through the area that might stop to hang out for a while or the local eagles might even fly out of the Santa Anas towards cities to feed occasionally. The easiest way to identify a golden eagle overhead is by their massive size and their plank-like wings that look like a snowboard, very straight with rounded ends. A common bird that gets confused for golden eagles is the turkey vulture but you can identify them by their more curved wings, more point ends of the wings, and by their "teetering," when they fly they always teeter back and forth whereas golden eagles are very stable in flight.