Rock Eagle Effigy Mound, Archaeological site in Eatonton, United States.

Rock Eagle Effigy Mound is an archaeological site in Eatonton, Georgia, where thousands of white quartz stones form a bird figure on the ground. The stones lie close together and shape a body, wings, and head in a pattern that stretches over 100 feet (30 meters).

Groups from the Woodland Period laid out this stone figure between 1000 BC and AD 300 using material from the surrounding area. The site remained intact over centuries and was only systematically documented in the 20th century.

The bird's head actually faces south by southeast, with the beak pointing almost due south, though a 1940 bronze marker near the head long encouraged the idea that it faced the rising sun. Scholars also debate the species: some see a buzzard, a symbol of death among some indigenous peoples, fitting for a mound where cremated human remains were found.

An observation platform allows you to see the entire stone figure from above, as the pattern is not fully visible from ground level. Information panels on site explain the origin and meaning of the arrangement for visitors without prior knowledge.

Only two bird effigy mounds are known east of the Mississippi River: Rock Eagle and Rock Hawk, about thirteen miles to the southeast in the same county. Early settlers dug into the mound hoping for buried treasure, but 20th-century archaeologists found the figure was built over a natural rock outcrop.