Booted eagle
| Booted eagle | |
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| A dark morph wintering in India | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Accipitriformes |
| Family: | Accipitridae |
| Genus: | Hieraaetus |
| Species: | H. pennatus |
| Binomial name | |
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Hieraaetus pennatus (Gmelin, 1788) |
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| Synonyms | |
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The booted eagle (Hieraaetus pennatus, also classified as Aquila pennata) is a medium-sized mostly migratory bird of prey with a wide distribution in the Palearctic and southern Asia, wintering in the tropics of Africa and Asia, with a small, disjunct breeding population in south-western Africa. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae.
The booted is a small eagle, comparable to the common buzzard in size though more eagle-like in shape. Males grow to about 510–770 g (1.12–1.70 lb) in weight, with females about 840–1,025 g (1.852–2.260 lb) with a length of 40 cm and a wingspan of 11–132 cm. There are two relatively distinct plumage forms. Pale birds are mainly light grey with a darker head and flight feathers. The other form has mid-brown plumage with dark grey flight feathers.
The call is a shrill kli-kli-kli.
It breeds in southern Europe, North Africa and across Asia, and also in western South Africa and Namibia. The northern populations are migratory, wintering in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, while the small southern African populations is sedentary. This is a species of wooded, often hilly countryside with some open areas, it breeds in rocky, broken terrain but migrants will use almost any type of habitat other than dense forest.
This eagle lays 1–2 eggs in a nest built from sticks and line with green leaves in a tree, on a crag or it takes over the disused nest of another large bird such as a black kite or grey heron. The female incubates the egg for around 45 days and is fed by the male, after hatching she guards the nest and the young while the male provides all the food. The chick fledges after 70–75 days.
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Wikipedia