Book Reviews

The golden eagle is a bird of prey widely distributed in the northern hemisphere and a species on which a lot of scientific research has been carried out. It is probably one of the best known raptors after the peregrine falcon and the osprey. Jeff Watson’s book on the species is the first comprehensive monograph in the last 40 years, after the work of Seton Gordon (1955). Most monographs on birds of prey are based almost exclusively on the work of a single researcher in a limited area. Although Watson’s book is based on his 15 years of field experience and research with the golden eagle in Scotland, he has taken advantage of the numerous researchers that have studied the species in countries such as France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. The author has carried out an extensive review of the literature of the species and has also considered those papers difficult to find, often published in local journals, and those difficult to read, in languages other than English. From that point of view, Watson has done an impressive job. The monograph also takes a more comparative than a mere descriptive approach, and explores the similarities and differences in the ecology of the species in different parts of its range, and compares the golden eagle with other species of the genus Aquila. The structure of the book is similar to that of other bird monographs. A total of 22 chapters review most aspects of the biology of the species: distribution, hunting behaviour, food, nest sites, ranging behaviour, population density, population estimates and trends, breeding cycle, breeding performance, moult, movements, mortality, threats and conservation. There is also an interesting chapter on history and tradition which reviews the information available on the relationship between golden eagles and people in Europe, North America and Central Asia, and a final chapter on aspects of the biology of this species that require further research. As I said previously, the chapters are not only of a descriptive nature but also compare populations in different parts of the range and different species of eagles, and try to find ecological factors that explain the differences. I found particularly interesting the relationship between dietary breadth and breeding success