With the alias of white eagle or old eagle, the bird belongs to the Accipitridae family of Falconiformes order. Its scientific name is Aquila chrysaetos (Latin) or Golden Eagle (English).

It is a large-size bird of prey, with a full-length of about 86 centimeters. Its body feathers are mainly chestnut brown. The poult's head and neck feather is yellow brown. Except the three most outboard pieces of the primary remiges, all basal portions of remiges have white spots. Its rectrices are hoar and the front tip is black brown. When growing up, its wing and tail feathers have no white color and the color of the vertex feather deepens to golden brown. The beak is black and tan with slightly blue basal portion. Its toes and claws are yellow.

The bird mainly inhabits in alpine grassland and coniferous forests, seldom seen on plains. It is a ferocious bird with strong force, preying on cooers, doves, pheasants, partridges, klipdas, and even young musk deer. Its breeding period is from February to March. It builds nests in great trees on steep cliffs, laying 1 to 2 eggs per brood. The egg is bluish white, with large or small russet stripes. The incubation period lasts 44 to 45 days, with male and female birds joining together to hatch. The squab leaves the nest 77 to 80 days later.

Golden Eagle is a resident bird, distributed all over the northeast of China and Midwest mountainous areas, and occasionally seen in Chuzhou of Anhui Province, Zhenjiang of Jiangsu Province, and Wenzhou of Zhejiang Province.