I have made the order and now waiting for the CITES and all the necessary document. Hopefully everthing is fine and I can get a good quality bird soonest…

Here is some information about african hawk eagle in wiki.

The African Hawk Eagle (Aquila spilogastra) is a large bird of prey. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae.

The African Hawk Eagle breeds in tropical Sub-Saharan Africa. It is a bird of wooded hills, building a stick nest about 3 feet (almost 1 meter) in diameter in the fork of a large tree. The clutch is generally one or two eggs.

This is a small to medium-sized eagle at about 55–65 cm in length. The upper parts are blackish. Its underparts are white heavily streaked with black. The underwing flight feathers are white with a black trailing edge. The underwing coverts are mostly black with white spots.

Sexes are similar, but young birds are brown above and rufous coloration replaces the black underparts of the adult.

The African Hawk Eagle hunts small mammals, reptiles, and birds up to the size of a francolin. The call is a shrill kluu-kluu-kluu.

Once I got my African Hawk Eagle… the fun will start again… I will try to post the update about the training and hunting…

Here is some photo of the eagle…

here is the article (originally from telegraph.co.uk)

Independent inquiry into reintroduction of sea eagles

By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
Last Updated: 7:01pm BST 01/10/2008

Conservationists have announce an independent inquiry into the reintroduction of sea eagles into Scotland.
# Sea eagles ‘make sheep farming impossible’
# Paying the price of sea eagles
# Re-introduced sea eagles killing hundreds of lambs in Scotland

During a heated public meeting in Poolewe, Wester Ross, farmers claimed that hundreds of sheep are being killed by the raptors and said that their livelihoods were at stake.
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The birds were reintroduced into the west of Scotland in the 1970s and have been increasing in numbers ever since to around 80 individuals. A further 30 birds were recently reintroduced to the east coast and another 60 could be released over the next three years.

Scottish Natural Heritage and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, who are responsible for reintroducing the birds to Scotland after almost 100 years, gave presentations to try to reassure the crofters.

The organisations claim sea eagles, that can have a wing span of up eight feet, will only eat a handful of lambs every breeding season.

But it was the local crofters who stood up to give emotional accounts of losing their lambs to “invasive alien species” who got the loudest cheer.

Kenny Mackenzie, 70, who has kept sheep in the area all his life accused conservationists of ignoring the crofters concerns.

“This community cannot stand another year of this beast and I think we should start shooting them this spring,” he said.

Willie Fraser, chairman of the Gairloch branch of the Scottish Crofting Foundation, said 200 lambs have been killed in the area this breeding season, around two-a-day. He said half of the lambs in the area have been taken every breeding season for the last five years when sea eagles settled in the area.

He pointed to a labatory report from a regional vet who believed a 5.4kg lamb was attacked by a sea eagle and described lambs being left with broken necks after being dropped by Britain’s largest bird of prey.

“We have lived with his for over five years and it is a nightmare,” he said.

“We have farmed sheep here for generations but we will see the end of sheep farming in this area if this is not sorted out.”

Alison MacLennan of the RSPB used a 500g bag of sugar to demonstrate the weight of the average daily intake of a sea eagle and brought along the remains found in a nest to show the variety of foods eaten.

She said scientific studies show the birds survive mainly on sea birds and fish and said it would be unheard of for the three nesting pairs in Wester Ross to have eaten 200 lambs in one season.

“Yes birds are taking lambs but they are not taking a lot in comparison to other food stuffs,” she said.

However the crofters insisted sea eagles are killing lambs, “terrorising” adult sheep and are capable of taking domestic cats and dogs.

Fiona Cameron, 26, whose family breed 200 lambs every season said 50 were lost to the sea eagle this year and the family risk going out of business.

Speaking on behalf of her family, she said: “The sea eagle is like a thief in the night attacking our flock. In the past we would have been able to protect our sheep from the thief but if we do anything to the sea eagle we would be jailed or fined. SNH must do something this winter. The sea eagle has ravaged and killed our lambs for over five years.”

She added: “I would like to see sheep farming continue on the west coast but if nothing is done it will not continue.”

Ron Macdonald, head of policy and advice at Scottish Natural Heritage, said if the two sides cannot agree an independent inquiry was needed to establish how many lambs are being killed.

“You are not believing what we are telling you, so we need to draw a line under and have a independent inquiry,” he said.

Crofters welcomed the move but said interim measures were needed to compensate farmers and called for a halt on the further reintroduction of sea eagles until the inquiry is complete.

The National Farmers Union and Scottish Gamekeepers Association, who were also represented at the meeting, voiced concern for lamb stocks and the sea bird population in the long run when the sea eagles become established on the east coast.

They said farmers need to be able to control re-introduced species on managed land once they start killing other protected species or domestic animals.

Jamie McGrigor, the Scottish Tory MSP for the Highlands and Islands, called for compensation or control to be made part of the Scottish Rural Development Programme.

“The sea eagle is a carrion-eating vulture that will eat anything dead or alive,” he said. “This is a situation that must be controlled by the Scottish Government somehow either by allowing control or giving compensation.”

MONTPELIER – A pair of bald eagles have successfully nested and raised young in Vermont for the first time in three decades.

“It’s fantastic news. It is something we have been waiting for for a long time,” said John Austin, director of wildlife for the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department.

Like other predatory birds, bald eagles were decimated by the use of DDT and other chemicals. The last breeding pair known to successfully raise young in the state did so in the early 1970s, Austin said.

As eagle populations have rebounded in recent years, Vermont biologists have looked on enviously as pairs of the birds have raised young to adulthood in New York State and in New Hampshire. Several pairs have made nests – sometimes with biologists help – along the Connecticut River or Lake Champlain.

However, the birds have not succeeded in raising young, until this year.

“We have had adult bald eagles living in the state of Vermont for a number of years now. What it seems to take in order to get them to nest is a lot of time, really,” Austin said. “They need to re-acquaint themselves with the area and the habitat.”

But this year a pair successfully raised their young in a nest along the upper Connecticut – biologists won’t reveal the exact location to protect the birds.

Several years ago state biologists and others concerned about the future of the eagle population brought young birds into the state.

“That was an important opportunity to establish some young eagles that would home back to Vermont,” Austin said.

Several times since then eagles have set up nests on human-constructed platforms or in trees. But this is the first year there is good evidence that a pair has hatched and successfully raised a young eagle.

The proof won’t come for a year or so, but given the increase in the number of adult birds in Vermont recently and the successful nesting this year Vermonters will likely see an increase in successfully nesting bald eagles, Austin said.

“Because we have been seeing an expansion in the number of adult eagles in and around Vermont … we are probably poised to start to see a real increase in the number of adult eagles setting up nests in Vermont,” he said.

The bald eagle was removed from the federal engendered species list in 2007, but it still is on Vermont’s list. Perhaps, with time, the eagle will be able to be removed from that protective category as the state has been successful in encouraging the recovery of populations of some other predatory birds in the last few years, like the peregrine falcon and the osprey.

“Through a lot of time and dedication from state biologists and federal biologists and most importantly volunteers we were able to recover those species,” Austin said.

A birder took a photograph of an eaglet in the nest. In addition after the pair of birds was done raising their young Bill Conn, a forester with the Vermont Electric Power Co. (VELCO), climbed the massive white pine tree in which the eagles built their nest and – using a camera attached to a hard hat – filmed egg shells and other solid evidence that the nest was a successful breeding site this year.

State biologists and volunteers had reason to hope the nest was a successful site, but Conn looked for about 45 minutes before finding egg fragments, he said.

“I yelled down ‘I have some shells, I have some shells’,” Conn said.

“I found a lot of fish bones,” he said. “We also found some downy feathers that indicated there was probably an eaglet in there.”

State biologists believed that since the young were no longer in the nest the adult eagles would probably not object to his climbing the tree, Conn said. But he was still pretty nervous about it, he said.

As he was coming down “off in the distance we were pretty sure we saw a pair of eagles flying around,” Conn said.

(souce: timesargus.com) ]]> http://birdofprey.info/a-vermont-born-eagle-at-long-last/feed/ 0 http://birdofprey.info/haasts-eagle-new-zealand-giant-eagle/ http://birdofprey.info/haasts-eagle-new-zealand-giant-eagle/#comments Sun, 07 Sep 2008 12:32:07 +0000 BirdLover http://birdofprey.info/?p=107 Haast eagle video

I have some information about the crowned Eagle which I get from the net (from wiki to be exact). Hope you find the information below useful and interesting.

The Crowned Eagle (Stephanoaetus coronatus), more precisely known as the Crowned Hawk-eagle, is a very large, powerful, crested bird of prey (80-90 cm approx) found in tropical Africa south of the Sahara; in Southern Africa a common resident in suitable habitat in the eastern areas.

It inhabits mainly dense forests; its staple diet consists of monkeys (particularly those of the genus Chlorocebus) and other medium-sized mammals), such as the Cape Hyrax and small antelopes. To a far lesser extent, birds and monitor lizards are also taken, however 98% of the diet is mammalian.

While smaller than the Martial Eagle, the Crowned Eagle is renowned as Africa’s most powerful and ferocious eagle in terms of the weight and nature of prey taken. Mammalian prey, especially duikers, may weigh up to 34 kg (75 lbs) and still be preyed on by these eagles. There is even a record of a human child’s skull having been found in a nest of this eagle, but it may be most likely that this child was eaten as carrion rather than actually killed by the eagle parents. Due to their striking similarities, the Crowned Eagle is often considered Africa’s analogue of the Harpy Eagle.

The Crowned Hawk-eagle is the only extant member of the genus Stephanoaetus. A second species, the Madagascar Crowned Hawk-eagle (Stephanoaetus mahery) became extinct after humans settled on Madagascar (Goodman, 1994). It was the largest and strongest bird of prey of prehistoric Madagascar (see Elephant Bird) and together with the living Fossa (animal) Cryptoprocta ferox, the larger Giant Fossa Cryptoprocta spelea (Goodman et al. 2004) and the two malagasy crocodiles, the living Nile crocodile and the recently extinct giant dwarf crocodile Crocodylus robustus the apex predators on the island. Extinction by overhunting of the giant lemurs which constituted its main prey seems to have been the main reason for this species’ disappearance, which took place at some time during the second half of the first millennium AD.

Description of Crowned Eagle

Dark grey upperparts with rufous/white below, belly and breasts are heavily mottled with black. This eagle has short, broad and rounded wings for added maneuverability in its environment. The rufous underwing coverts, strongly barred white/black outer wings and tail are all diagnostic in flight. The large crest (often raised), combined with this bird’s very large size make the adult near-unmistakable at suitable range.

However, the juvenile is often confused with the juvenile Martial Eagle, especially in flight. The juvenile Crowned is distinguished from that species in having a much longer, more heavily barred tail, spotted legs and an all-white head.

As with most large eagles, the female is larger than the male. The legs are also extremely powerful and the Eagle possesses formidably large, strong talons, often used for killing and dismembering prey. Length is 80-95 cm (32-38 in), the wingspan is 1.5-2.1m (5-7 ft) and body weight is 3.2-4.1 kg (7-9.1 lbs).

Distribution and habitat of crowned Eagle

In Eastern Africa, the Crowned Eagles’s range extends from southern Uganda and Kenya, forested parts of Tanzania, eastern Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland and eastern South Africa about as far south as Knysna.

Its range also extends westward about as far as Liberia, though its distribution is severely fragmented in these areas. The eagle is less prominent at the extremes of its range, being most populous between Zimbabwe and Tanzania; it is, however, restricted to denser vegetation and indigenous forests throughout its distribution.

The Crowned Eagle inhabits dense indigenous and riverine forests (sometimes plantations), heavily wooded hillsides, dense woodland and rocky outcrops throughout its range, at an altitude of up to 11,000 ft. Owing to lack of suitable habitat (through deforestation and industrialisation), the eagle’s range is discontinuous.

Ecology of Crowned Eagle

The Crowned Eagle is a non-migratory Eagle and is largely sedentary, usually inhabiting a fixed territory for most of its lifespan. There is evidence, however, that the birds migrate moderate distances when circumstances require it, for example when changing mates in isolated breeding areas (The Hawk Conservancy Trust, 2006). However, such migration is local in scale and is not comparable to the seasonal migrations of some other Eagle species (e.g. the Steppe Eagle.)

Whilst quintessentially an elusive species (owing mostly to its habitat), the Crowned Eagle is highly vocal and is renowned for its noisy, undulating display flight. The male performs an elaborate rise-and-fall display over the forest canopy both during the breeding season and outside it as a territorial proposition. During this display, the male is extraordinarily noisy and may reach heights exceeding 900m (~ 3000 ft). The voice is a series of loud whistles that rise and fall in pitch. The female may also perform independent display flights and pairs are also known to collaborate in spectacular tandems.

Diet of Crowned Eagle

The Crowned Eagle’s staple diet is 98% mammallian, with Vervet monkeys and Colobus monkeys (amongst other smaller primates) being favorites. In suitable habitat the Eagle will also take Hyraxes and small Antelope such as Duiker. Quintessentially, an adult Crowned Eagle will only resort to hunting large wild fowls (such as Guineafowl), Monitor lizards and snakes when mammalian food sources are scarce, though this is uncommon. Juveniles and subadults, however, may take these lines of prey more frequently.

Being a forest-dwelling species, the Crowned Eagle has no need to travel great distances to hunt, nor employ a great deal of active hunting flight (such as soaring seen in Savanna-dwelling species). Rather, the Crowned Eagle tends to hunt passively; a soaring range of 4-10 miles is the norm and is only seldom exceeded. After flying above the canopy and locating a suitable hunting spot (sometimes by the call of the noisy Vervet monkey), the Eagle will wait on a perch, perhaps for a nearby troop of monkeys to be spotted. Following the sighting of suitable prey, the Eagle quickly and stealthily maneuvers itself through the forest towards its prey, a certain element of surprise inherent in its final approach. The sharp, powerful talons may produce sufficient force to kill the prey on impact; if not, death from trauma or asphyxiation soon follows. Typically, the eagle can carry a mass roughly equal to its own (~ 3-6 kg) to its nest/perch; anything heavier is dismembered and returned to the nest/perch in pieces. Parts of larger prey are often cached for later consumption.

Breeding

Crowned Eagle pairs breed once every two years; a single breeding cycle is of approximately 500 days in duration.

The pair collaborate in building a massive nest in a fork of a large forest tree, typically 15–40 m (50–140 ft) above the ground. A nest built from scratch may take several (up to 5) months to construct, however existing nests are often repaired and re-used during successive breeding seasons. A larger nest may measure up to 2.5 m (8 ft) across and up to 3 m (10 ft) deep and consists of both dead and greener branches.

Conservation status

The Crowned Eagle is fairly common in suitable habitat, though its numbers show decline in sync with deforestation. It is far more common in protected areas and reserves than elsewhere in its range, though is still recorded consistently outside of these areas. Its numbers are probably higher than modern suspicion might suggest, though invariably hinge on rates of deforestation, especially in the north of its range,though wild has been invaded there are many organizations working to help keep the forestry that in witch many birds dwell alive and well.

Like the slightly larger Martial Eagle, the Crowned has throughout modern history been the target of gun-wielding farmers, who hold that the bird is a threat to their livestock [1]. Such beliefs are erroneous; neither the Crowned nor the Martial have been implicated in regular attacks on livestock, with only isolated cases of starving individuals attacking calves. It is worth noting that the Crowned in particular rarely leaves the forest to hunt, and occasions where it soars outside of dense forest are usually owing to territorial or breeding-related behavior.

Trivia

In April 1996 the world’s first captive born Crowned Eagle hatched at The San Diego Zoo.

Part of the skull of a human baby was once found in the nest of a Crowned Eagle, presumably because the baby was of similar size to its other primate prey and thus a perfectly applicable food item for the bird, though this is the only record of its kind.

Here is some crown eagle video:

The bird is actually Rufous-bellied Eagle-Aquila kienerii. Some member in the falconry forum mention that they can fly like a falcon… well, based on their face, they look like a falcon! … but when we observed their feet, it have feather like an eagle.

Here is the information about the bird which I get from the wiki:

Rufous-bellied Eagle, (Aquila kienerii), is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes the buzzards, hawks and Old World vultures.

Rufous-bellied Eagle breeds in tropical Asia. It is resident in Sri Lanka, southwest and northern India, and east to southeast Asia and Indonesia.

This species is associated with woodland. The large stick nest is built in a tree and a single egg is laid.

Rufous-bellied Eagle is a smallish eagle, 54-60 cm long. It has broad rounded wings, held flat while soaring, and a short broad tail. It eats mainly birds and small mammals.

The adult has blackish upperparts and head. The foreneck and breast are white, and the tail and flight feathers are white barred with dark. The rest of the underparts are chestnut. Sexes are similar.

The immature eagle has white in place of the adult’s chestnut plumage, and dark flank patches.

Here is the photo of the bird:

The eagle species that attract my attention at the moment is tawny eagle. Based on wikipedia, The Tawny Eagle (Aquila rapax) is a large bird of prey. It is about 62-72 cm in length and has a wingspan of 165-185cm. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. It was once considered to be closely related to the migratory Steppe Eagle, Aquila nipalensis, and the two forms have previously been treated as conspecific. They were split based on pronounced differences in morphology and anatomy (Clark, 1992; Olson, 1994; Sangsteret al., 2002); molecular analysis[citation needed] indicates that these birds are not even each other’s closest relatives.

It breeds in most of Africa both north and south of the Sahara Desert and across tropical southernwestern Asia to India. It is a resident breeder which lays 1-3 eggs in a stick nest in a tree, crag or on the ground.

Throughout its range it favours open dry habitats, such as desert, semi-desert, steppes, or savannah.

This is a large eagle with tawny upperparts and blackish flight feathers and tail. The lower back is very pale. This species is smaller and paler than the Steppe Eagle, although it does not share that species’ pale throat.

Immature birds are less contrasted than adults, but both show a range of variation in plumage colour.

The Tawny Eagle’s diet is largely fresh carrion of all kinds, but it will kill small mammals up to the size of a rabbit, reptiles and birds up to the size of guineafowl. It will also steal food from other raptors.

The call of the Tawny Eagle is a crow-like barking, but it is rather a silent bird except in display.

One of the interesting information about them is that they are large but have relatively small beak and their talon is somehow not very curved. Here is the information that I get from hawk conservation site: “Members of the genus Ictinaetus are large, but lightly built eagles with small beaks. They have very long wings and a long tail. The legs are feathered, and the talons long, but only slightly curved. The outer digit is quite short. These characteristics of the feet are probably adaptations for taking nestling birds from tree-top nests. There is a slight crest, formed by the pointed feathers of the crown. The adult is mostly black; the immature more buff.
This genus is probably a specialised booted eagle, but there is some evidence, that it is closely related to the kites, although that would make the feathered tarsi difficult to explain.
The genus contains one species in tropical Asia.”

Based on the site also, it mention that the entire plumage of the adult is black to dark chocolate brown, paler on secondaries and scapulars.A small amount of white sometimes forms a patch on the upper tail coverts. The tail and wing quills have grey bands on the inner webs,and there is, in flight, a white patch at the carpal joint formed by the white bases of the primary flight feathers. The eyes brown, the cere and feet yellow.
Immatures are dark sepia brown above, the feathers of crown and nape and some on the back are tipped with buff. The upper tail coverts are banded with sepia and buff making a pale bar across the base of the tail. The sides of the head are golden-brown. The rest of the under side as far as the tail coverts is rufous to golden brown, with black streaks on the breast, and with some black bars on the tail coverts. The under-wing coverts are buff. The wing and tail quills are less clearly banded than in the adult. The eyes are brown, the feet and cere yellow.
The primary feathers of this species are very long, reaching beyond the tip of the tail when folded. They are strongly curved and are quite flexible. The feet are also weak, the claws less sharply curved than most eagles.

The mainstay of the diet of the Indian Black Eagle is birds’ eggs and young, taken in the tree-tops. It also takes ground prey, including mammals up to the size of a large rat, and the eggs and young of ground birds. It occasionally takes in flight small to medium-sized birds, bats, and swiftlets.
The talons, much less sharply curved than in most raptors, are an advantage when taking whole birds’ nests, from which the eagle consumes the contents at a later time.

(source: Hawk Conservancy trust)

Other than hawk conservancy trust, wikipedia also provide some good information about indian black eagle. wiki discribe this eagle asa large raptor at about 70-80cm in length. Adults have all-black plumage, with a yellow bill base (cere) and feet. The wings are long and pinched in at the innermost primaries giving a distinctive shape. The tail is also long, and shows faint barring. The wings are held in a shallow V in flight. Seen on hot afternoon, scouring the treetops for a nest, this bird is easily spotted by its jet black colour, large size, and a ‘characteristic’ slow flight, sometimes just above the canopy. Sexes are similar, but young birds have a buff head, underparts and underwing coverts. The wing shape helps to distinguish this species from the dark form of Changeable Hawk Eagle (Spizaetus cirrhatus).

]]> http://birdofprey.info/indian-black-eagle-%e2%80%93-ictinaetus-malayensis/feed/ 0 http://birdofprey.info/changeable-hawk-eagle/ http://birdofprey.info/changeable-hawk-eagle/#comments Fri, 26 Jan 2007 12:01:16 +0000 BirdLover http://birdofprey.info/changeable-hawk-eagle/ Changeable Hawk Eagle is one of the common species of bird of prey in south East Asia. They are medium size eagle which measured about 55CM – 75 CM. Theyhave many morph and the different among the morph is their colour.

Here in the photo below is three different morph of changeable hawk eagle.

Here is some good information that I got when I search for changeable hawk eagle in the net:

The Changeable Hawk Eagle (Spizaetus cirrhatus) is a bird of prey. Like all eagles, it is in the family Accipitridae.

Changeable Hawk Eagle breeds in southern Asia from India and Sri Lanka to Indonesia and the Philippines. It is a bird of open woodland, although island forms prefer a higher tree density. It builds a stick nest in a tree and lays a single egg.

Changeable Hawk Eagle is a medium-large raptor at about 60-72cm in length. As its name implies, the plumage is very variable, and the existence of a number of subspecies further complicates identification. Most subspecies have a crest of four feathers, but this is reduced in some races, and is absent in some island forms.
Changeable Hawk Eagle at Bandipur National Park, India
Changeable Hawk Eagle at Bandipur National Park, India

The typical adult has brown upperparts and pale underparts, with barring on the undersides of the flight feathers and tail. The breast and belly are streaked. Some birds are much darker. The wings are long and parallel-sided, and are held flat in flight, which helps to distinguish this species from the similar Mountain Hawk Eagle, (Spizaetus nipalensis).

Sexes are similar, but young birds are often whiter-headed. Changeable Hawk Eagle eats mammals, birds and reptiles.

(source: Wikipedia)