Moluccan eagle
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Moluccan eagle, Halmahera |
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| Aquila gurneyi | ||||||||||
| Gray , 1860 |
The Moluccan Eagle ( Aquila gurneyi ) is a species of real eagle that occurs from the Moluccas to New Guinea and the islands of the Torres Strait . The specific epithet gurneyi carries this species in honor of John Henry Gurney (1819–1890), an English banker and amateur ornithologist .
The stock situation of the Moluccan eagle is given as near threatened . No subspecies are distinguished.
Appearance
The Moluccan eagle reaches a body length of 66 to 86 centimeters and a wing span between 170 and 190 centimeters. Very little data is available on weight. A single female weighed 3.1 kilograms.
The top and bottom of the body are dark brown to black brown. The tail plumage is gray on the underside and turns into a gray-white on the basal half, where it is cross-banded diffusely dark. The beak is gray with a black tip. The wax skin is gray. The iris is dark brown to dark yellow. The feet and legs are creamy white to pale yellow.
Young birds are significantly lighter than the adult birds, which is particularly evident on the head and underside of the body. The head and neck are dull light brown. The saddle, the rump and the upper tail covers are gray-brown. The upper tail coverts are also broadly lined with pale brown, thus forming a noticeable light spot on the back end. The tail plumage is black-gray with five to six narrow black and silvery-gray transverse bands on the central control feathers .
The underside of the body is dull red-brown, with a more pronounced red-brown tone on the front neck and turns into a cream color on the rump and the under tail-covers. Some juveniles have dark brown longitudinal stripes on the front chest and flanks, which are most clearly pronounced on the sides of the chest, while the flanks have only sparsely these dotted lines. The tail plumage is gray-white on the underside with six to seven narrow transverse bands. The beak is bluish white with a darker tip, the wax skin is bluish white. The iris is brown to dark olive yellow. The feet are white.
Possible confusion
There are several species in the range of the Moluccan eagle with which it can be confused. The wedge-tailed eagle has a striking wedge-shaped tail plumage. The beak is larger and more powerful. The white-bellied sea eagle has wider wings and the tail is significantly smaller and lighter.
Distribution area and habitat
The main distribution of this species is New Guinea, where it occurs in the lowlands and occasionally in the high mountains. The altitude distribution extends to a maximum of 2950 meters in New Guinea. The Moluccan Eagle is also found on the Aru Islands , the Yapen and Biak Islands in the Cenderawasih Bay , the D'Entrecasteaux Islands in the Solomon Sea east of New Guinea and the Moluccas , a group of islands between Sulawesi and New Guinea. He has also been on Boigu observed, the largest island of the Talbot Islands and the fifth largest in the archipelago of the Torres Strait Islands , which the Australian state of Queensland are. For this reason, the Moluccan eagle is also counted among the avifauna of Australia .
The habitat of the Moluccan eagle are rainforests. He also hunts over farmland and patrols the coastal zone on some islands.
Way of life
Almost nothing is known about the way of life of this eagle species. Its diet is believed to be predominantly small mammals, and it is believed that its main prey is couscous , a species of climbing bagler found in the Moluccas, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and the Cape York Peninsula on the northern tip of Australia. Details of reproductive biology have also not yet been investigated.
literature
- Bruce M. Beehler, Thane K. Pratt: Birds of New Guinea; Distribution, Taxonomy, and Systematics . Princeton University Press, Princeton 2016, ISBN 978-0-691-16424-3 .
- J. Ferguson-Lees, DA Christie: Raptors of the World. Christopher Helm, London 2001, ISBN 0-7136-8026-1 .
- PJ Higgins (Ed.): Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds , Volume 2, Raptors to Lapwings, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1993, ISBN 0-19-553069-1 .
