Buteo melanoleucus
| Black-chested buzzard-eagle | |
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| Adult male G. m. australis showing the contrasting underside plumage. In the nominate subspecies, the contrast is even stronger due to the pure white belly. Note short grey-tipped tail. |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Subclass: | Neornithes |
| Infraclass: | Neognathae |
| Superorder: | Neoaves |
| Order: | Accipitriformes |
| Family: | Accipitridae |
| Subfamily: | Buteoninae |
| Genus: | Geranoaetus (disputed) |
| Species: | G. melanoleucus |
| Binomial name | |
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Geranoaetus melanoleucus (Vieillot, 1819) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Buteo fuscescens (Vieillot, 1819) |
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Buteo fuscescens (Vieillot, 1819)
Buteo melanoleucus (Vieillot, 1819; non Vieillot, 1816: preoccupied)
Spizaetus fuscescens Vieillot, 1819
Spizaetus melanoleucus Vieillot, 1819 (non Vieillot, 1816: preoccupied)
but see text
The black-chested buzzard-eagle (Geranoaetus melanoleucus) is a bird of prey of the hawk and eagle family (Accipitridae). It lives in open regions of South America. This species is also known as the black buzzard-eagle, grey buzzard-eagle or analogously with "eagle" or "eagle-buzzard" replacing "buzzard-eagle", or as the Chilean blue eagle. It is sometimes placed in the genus Buteo.
This is a huge eagle-like "buzzard" ("hawk" in American terminology). It has a total length of 62 to 76 cm (24 to 30 in) and a wingspan of 149 to 200 cm (4 ft 11 in to 6 ft 7 in). In the nominate race, males averaged 2.13 kg (4.7 lb) and females averaged 2.75 kg (6.1 lb), with a range between both of 1.67 to 3.17 kg (3.7 to 7.0 lb). In the linearly slightly smaller G. m. australis subspecies, a male weighed 1.7 kg (3.7 lb) and a female weighed 3.2 kg (7.1 lb), indicating the bulk of the two races is roughly the same. It is noted for its bulky, powerful-looking build. It is rather long- and broad-winged and the slightly tapering tail is short by comparison and colored black, with grey tips in fresh plumage. When perched, the wings cover the tail almost completely, giving the bird a unique near-tailess appearance when perched. The adult has a white underside, sometimes with fine blackish stripes; its upperparts are dark grey with a blackish, brownish or bluish hue. The feathers of the neck and the lowest dark feathers of the breast are somewhat elongated. Adults have an ash-grey-and-white zone on the wings, the silvery white seen clearly from afar. The female is distinguished by a reddish-cinnamon hue to the upper- and underwing secondaries and is considerably larger than the male. Among standard measurements, males possess a wing chord of 463 to 555 mm (18.2 to 21.9 in), a tail of 203 to 300 mm (8.0 to 11.8 in), a culmen of 29 to 45 mm (1.1 to 1.8 in) and a tarsus of 95 to 102 mm (3.7 to 4.0 in). In comparison, females have a wing chord of 490 to 566 mm (19.3 to 22.3 in), a tail of 220 to 310 mm (8.7 to 12.2 in), a culmen of 30 to 45 mm (1.2 to 1.8 in) and a tarsus of 89 to 110 mm (3.5 to 4.3 in).
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Wikipedia