Achieving independence from parental care requires animals to learn about their environment while acquiring vital skills. The timing and type of the transition to independence vary across species, with some achieving independence early, while others rely on prolonged parental care presumably to mature and develop vital skills. When independence is delayed until juveniles reach a certain level of skill, we can expect that skill acquisition rate and proficiency will predict the timing of independence. Here, we investigated whether the acquisition of soaring flight skills can predict the latency to engage in extra-territorial excursions and ultimately emigration from the natal territory marking the onset of independence in golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos). While fine-scale soaring flight did not predict the propensity to go on excursions or the timing of emigration, movement at a daily scale did affect latency to excursions and emigration. Together, this indicates that soaring flight is learned quickly and early in life and that movement at the daily scale likely encompasses more than just flight capacity. Adult-like skill levels appear to be a necessary but not the determining factor for emigration, but may determine the timing of excursions. The difference we discovered between when individuals were capable of independence and when they committed to it may obscure the more general link between skill acquisition and the end of parental care in other systems as well.