Eagle festival in Mongolia

The Eagle Festival is an event organized in the westernmost province of Mongolia each year during the second weekend of September and the first weekend of October. Bayan-Ölgii is the country’s only Muslim and Kazakh majority province. It is not only fun and games, but a way to preserve the ancient hunting tradition and unique cultural heritage of the Kazakh minority of Mongolia. During the 1990s, a newly democratic Mongolia devoted a lot of funding and resources to support its tourism sector. One of the ways was the founding of the Golden Eagle Festival in 1999. This revived the ancient tradition of hunting with birds of prey which used to be practiced more commonly by pastoral nomads of the Eurasian steppe. Participants arrive wearing their traditional clothes mounted on their well-groomed horses while holding their majestic eagles on their arms. Cultural exhibitions, folk performances, and sales of handcrafts take place in the town of Ölgii, followed by the competitions few kilometers outside of town near the base of the neighboring mountains. Entrants compete for the awards of Best Turned-Out Eagle and Owner, Best Eagle at Hunting Prey, and Best Eagle at Locating its Owner from a Distance. Other activities include horse-racing, archery, and the exciting goatskin tug of war on horseback called Bushkashi. A smaller festival, the Sagsai Eagle Festival takes place on 17-18 of September each year especially for photographers, cinematographers, and journalists. And also, the Altai Kazakh Eagle Festival is held each year in the nearby village of Sagsai during the last week of September. Besides the main festival held in Bayan-Ölgii, you can experience a two-day long festival in March just outside of the country’s capital, Ulaanbaatar.

Some facts about golden eagles:

Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) is a bird of prey living in the northern hemisphere.
It is the most widely distributed species of eagle.
These dark brown birds have lighter golden-brown plumage on their napes.
Golden eagles use their agility, speed, and powerful feet with large, sharp talons to hunt.
They hunt a variety of small animals, mainly hares, rabbits, marmots, and ground squirrels.
They build large nests in cliffs and other high places to which they may return for several breeding years.
They are monogamous and may remain together for several years or possibly for life.
Females lay up to four eggs, and then incubate them for six weeks.
The species are present in large areas of Eurasia, North America, and parts of North Africa.
The golden eagle is 66 to 102 centimeters (26 to 40 in) in length. Its wings are broad and the wingspan is 1.8 to 2.34 meters (5 ft 11 in to 7 ft 8 in).
The females are used for hunting because of their larger size compared to their male counterparts.
The eagles are released back into the wild after 6 or 7 years of captivity.
Golden eagles are long-lived birds that tend to live for at least 14 to 15 years. They could live up to 30 years or more.