Ornate hawk-eagle

Ornate hawk-eagle
A wild adult in Campeche, Mexico
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Accipitriformes
Family: Accipitridae
Genus: Spizaetus
Species:
S. ornatus
Binomial name
Spizaetus ornatus
(Daudin, 1800)
Subspecies[2]
  • S. o. vicarius – Friedmann, 1935
  • S. o. ornatus – (Daudin, 1800)

The ornate hawk-eagle (Spizaetus ornatus) is a fairly large bird of prey from the tropical Americas. Formerly, some authorities referred to this species as the crested hawk-eagle, a name that may cause some confusion as it is more commonly used for an Asian eagle species.[3] Like all eagles, it is in the family Accipitridae. This species has a feathered tarsus that marks it as a member of the Aquilinae or booted eagle subfamily.[4] This species is notable for the vivid colors and bold markings of adults, which differ considerably from the far more whitish plumage of the juvenile bird.[5] The ornate hawk-eagle ranges from central Mexico south through much of Central America and in a somewhat spotty but broad overall range into South America, including in the west apart from the Andes and broadly on the Atlantic side especially Brazil down to as far as Southeast Brazil and northern Argentina.[1][6] This species is found largely in primary forests with tall trees, although can be found in many forest types.[6]

The ornate hawk-eagle female lays almost always a single egg and the species has a fairly prolonged breeding cycle like many tropical raptors, especially due to a lengthy post-fledging stage on which juveniles are dependent on their parents.[7] It is a diversified and exceptionally powerful predator which takes a range of prey, usually various medium-to-large-sized birds and small-to-medium-sized mammals as well as occasional reptiles.[8] Like many forest-dependent raptors, especially those in the tropical and subtropical regions, this species is likely under the pressing threat of deforestation. The decline of forest habitat in this species range, especially the Amazon rainforest, led the IUCN to uplist the ornate hawk-eagle as Near Threatened in 2016.[1]

  1. ^ a b c BirdLife International (2016). "Spizaetus ornatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22696197A93548774. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22696197A93548774.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. ^ Gill F, D Donsker & P Rasmussen (Eds). 2020. IOC World Bird List (v10.2). doi : 10.14344/IOC.ML.10.2.
  3. ^ Friedmann H. (1935). A new race of the Crested Hawk-eagle Spizaetus ornatus. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, 25 (10): 450-451.
  4. ^ Lerner, H., Christidis, L., Gamauf, A., Griffiths, C., Haring, E., Huddleston, C.J., Kabra, S., Kocum, A., Krosby, M., Kvaloy, K., Mindell, D., Rasmussen, P., Rov, N., Wadleigh, R., Wink, M. & Gjershaug, J.O. (2017). Phylogeny and new taxonomy of the Booted Eagles (Accipitriformes: Aquilinae). Zootaxa, 4216(4), 301-320.
  5. ^ Clark, W. S., & Schmitt, N. J. (2017). Raptors of Mexico and Central America. Princeton University Press.
  6. ^ a b Ferguson-Lees, J.; Christie, D. (2001). Raptors of the World. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 0-618-12762-3.
  7. ^ Phillips, R. A., & Hatten, C. J. (2013). Nest observations on the Ornate Hawk-Eagle (Spizaetus ornatus) in Belize, Central America. Boletin SAO, 22.
  8. ^ Klein, B. C., Harper, L. H., Bierregaard, R. O., & Powell, G. V. (1988). The nesting and feeding behavior of the ornate hawk-eagle near Manaus, Brazil. The Condor, 90(1), 239-241.