Black-and-white hawk-eagle
| Black-and-white hawk-eagle | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Accipitriformes |
| Family: | Accipitridae |
| Genus: | Spizaetus |
| Species: | S. melanoleucus |
| Binomial name | |
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Spizaetus melanoleucus (Vieillot, 1816) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Buteo melanoleucus Vieillot, 1816 |
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Buteo melanoleucus Vieillot, 1816
Spizastur melanoleucus (Vieillot, 1816)
The black-and-white hawk-eagle (Spizaetus melanoleucus, formerly Spizastur melanoleucus) is a bird of prey species in the eagle and hawk family (Accipitridae). It is found throughout a large part of tropical America, from southern Mexico to northern Argentina.
As its name suggest, this is a black and white eagle, resembling the small typical eagles sometimes separated in "Hieraaetus". It is some 20–24 in (50–60 cm) long overall and weighs about 30 oz (850 g). The head, neck and body are white; a small crest forms a black spot on top of the head, and the area around the eyes, particularly towards the bill, is also black. The wings are black, and the bird has a brownish tail barred black-dark grey and with white tip. The iris is orange, the feet pale to bright yellow with black talons. The bill is black with a yellow cere.
The sexes are alike in color, but the female is larger. Immature birds have pale edges on the upperwing coverts and some brownish-grey feathers on the back.
The black-and-white hawk-eagle is hard to confuse with any other bird in its range. The black-faced hawk (Leucopternis melanops) is very similar in overall coloration, but it is much smaller and has a black tail with a single bold white bar in the middle. The ornate hawk-eagle (Spizaetus ornatus), presumably a very close relative of S. melanoleucus, looks quite similar when young. However, the wings, back and tail are much lighter in young S. ornatus, and they do not have the black eye-ring.
This species occurs from Oaxaca to Veracruz in southern Mexico southwards throughout Central America, with the exception of most of El Salvador and the Pacific coast of Nicaragua. In South America, it occurs on the Pacific side of the Andes south to Ecuador. The bulk of its range extends along the Caribbean coast from northern Colombia and Venezuela to the Guianas, and south through eastern Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay to NE Argentina, and from there westwards again to Beni and Santa Cruz in NE Bolivia. A black-and-white hawk-eagle population is also found in the Loreto Region of NE Peru; it is not known in how far this is isolated from the rest of the bird's range. The species is absent from the western Amazon basin, and it is not common in the lands to the east (e.g. in Minas Gerais).
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Wikipedia