Eagles Are Scored on How Fast They Drop to the Glove and the Mongolian Season Starts This Month
Sagsai holds its festival on 17 and 18 September and the main event is outside Olgii on 3 and 4 October.
The eagle festival season in Bayan-Olgii, in far western Mongolia, runs through September and into October. Kazakh berkutchi compete on horseback with trained golden eagles.
The main Golden Eagle Festival is on the steppe outside Olgii on 3 and 4 October, run by the Mongolian Eagle Hunters' Association, with somewhere between 70 and 100 hunters expected. Last year's had more than 60 and about 700 visitors.
Around it are the smaller ones: Altai on 12 and 13 September, about 110 kilometres south of Olgii; Sagsai on 17 and 18 September, 35 to 40 kilometres out, with up to about 40 hunters; Tolbo on 21 and 22 September; and Altantsogts on 26 and 27 September.
The judging works in two parts. The bird is released from a hilltop and has to come down to its hunter's outstretched arm, and then it has to strike a fox pelt dragged behind a galloping horse. A panel scores the speed and accuracy of the descent, the eagle's responsiveness to its handler, its work on the prey, and the authenticity of dress, saddlery and horse ornament. The points across the events are added into a single champion.
Alongside the eagles there is archery, horse and camel racing, tenge ilu, which is picking a coin off the ground at a gallop, kyz kuar and kokpar.
The first official festival was held in 1999. Last year's champion was Den-Islam Bazarbai, nine years old and a seventh-generation hunter, the youngest to win it.
Dates here move. Last year's main festival ran on 4 and 5 October, and the 2026 dates come from tour operators rather than an official listing.