| Imperial Eagle | ||||||||||||||
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| Aquila heliaca Savigny, 1809 |
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Aquila heliacea heliacea |
The Imperial Eagle, (Aquila heliaca), is very similar to the Golden Eagle, but a little smaller (length 80 cm, wingspan 200 cm). It is not as powerful as its relative. This eagle belongs to the bird of prey family Accipitridae. Imperial Eagles are distributed in South East Europe, West and Central Asia. The Spanish Imperial Eagle, found in Spain and Portugal, was formerly lumped with this species, the name Imperial Eagle being used in these circumstances; however the two are now regarded as separate species (Sangster et al., 2002) due to significant differences in morphology (Cramp & Simmons, 1980), ecology (Meyburg, 1994), and molecular characteristics (Seibold et al., 1996; Padilla et al., 1999). In the winter this eagle migrates to Africa, India and China. In Europe, the Imperial Eagle is threatened with extinction. It has nearly vanished from much of its former distribution area, e.g. Hungary and Austria. Today the only European area where the population is rising is the Carpathian basin, mainly the northern mountains in Hungary and the southern part of Slovakia. The nesting population in Hungary is around 70-80 pairs. The monarchy of Austria-Hungary once chose the Imperial Eagle to be its heraldic animal, but this did not help this bird. The eagle's preferred habitat is open country with small woods; unlike some other eagles, it does not live in mountains, large forests or treeless steppes. The nest is built in trees, which are not surrounded by other trees, so these nests are visible from a long way off, and the eagles may overlook the surroundings. Tree branches are taken in order to build the nest, which is upholstered with grass and feathers. In March or April the female lays two or three eggs. After 45 days the youngs are hatching. Often just one young will leave the nest, while the other(s) die before becoming fully-fledged. This eagle feeds mainly on susliks (a kind of ground squirrel), and in addition on other rodents, martens, foxes and birds.
References
- BirdLife International (2004). Aquila heliaca. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a range map and justification for why this species is vulnerable
- Cramp, S. & Simmons, K. E. L. (1980) Birds of the Western Palearctic, Vol. 2. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
- Meyburg, B. U. (1994): [210 & 211: Imperial Eagles]. In: del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew & Sargatal, Jordi (editors): Handbook of Birds of the World, Volume 2: New World Vultures to Guineafowl: 194-195, plate 20. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. ISBN 84-87334-15-6
- Padilla, J. A.; Martinez-Trancón, M.; Rabasco, A. & Fernández-García, J. L. (1999): The karyotype of the Iberian imperial eagle (Aquila adalberti) analyzed by classical and DNA replication banding. Cytogenetics and Cell Genetics 84: 61–66. doi:10.1159/000015216 (HTML abstract)
- Sangster, George; Knox, Alan G.; Helbig, Andreas J. & Parkin, David T. (2002): Taxonomic recommendations for European birds. Ibis 144(1): 153–159. doi:10.1046/j.0019-1019.2001.00026.x PDF fulltext
- Seibold, I.; Helbig, A. J.; Meyburg, B. U.; Negro, J. J. & Wink, M. (1996): Genetic differentiation and molecular phylogeny of European Aquila eagles (Aves: Falconiformes) according to cytochrome-b nucleotide sequences. In: Meyburg, B. U. & Chancellor, R. D. (eds): Eagle Studies: 1–15. Berlin: World Working Group on Birds of Prey.
