m (New page: ;Haliaeetus leucoryphus ==Identification== Pallas�s Fish Eagle Haliaeetus leucoryphus RANGE Asia: breeds from the eastern Caspian region east to north and central China and south to n...) |
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==Identification== | ==Identification== | ||
| − | + | Pallas's Fish Eagle | |
| − | Haliaeetus leucoryphus | + | Pallas's Sea-eagle (Haliaeetus leucoryphus), also known as Pallas's Fish-eagle or Band-Tailed Fish-eagle, is a large, brownish sea-eagle. It has a light brown hood over a white face. The wings are dark brown and the back rufous, darker underneath. The tail is black with a wide, distinctive white stripe. Underwings have a white band. Juveniles are overall darker with no band on the tail. It is usually 76-84 cm (30-34 in) in length and its wingspan can reach 205 cm (81 in). |
| − | + | ||
| − | + | ==Distribution== | |
| + | They can be found in Central Asia - between the Caspian Sea and the Yellow Sea, from Kazakhstan and Mongolia to the Himalayas and northern India. | ||
| + | A migrant in northern parts of its breeding range leaving in October to winter from Iran to India and rarely to northern Indochina, returning from February onwards. | ||
Formerly bred in the extreme east of the Western Palearctic to the north of the Caspian Sea and once o regular visitor to the Volga region and Ukraine in summer and Iraq in winter, today this is a rare vagrant in the Western Palearctic esspecially outside the area of the former USSR. There are three old records for northern Europe, in Finland, Norway and Poland, all were in June-July and involved immature birds. More recently, in March 1992 one was recorded in the Warta Valley, Poland but a bird seen in Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands in 1976 was probably an escape. | Formerly bred in the extreme east of the Western Palearctic to the north of the Caspian Sea and once o regular visitor to the Volga region and Ukraine in summer and Iraq in winter, today this is a rare vagrant in the Western Palearctic esspecially outside the area of the former USSR. There are three old records for northern Europe, in Finland, Norway and Poland, all were in June-July and involved immature birds. More recently, in March 1992 one was recorded in the Warta Valley, Poland but a bird seen in Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands in 1976 was probably an escape. | ||
| − | + | ==Taxonomy== | |
| + | This species is the most hard-to-place sea-eagle. Among the species of its genus, it has no close living relatives. mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data is unable to reliably suggest a phylogenetic place for it among the sea-eagles. However, some information can be drawn from the molecular data, and especially from morphology and biogeography: | ||
| + | |||
| + | This species retains the ancestral dark eye, bill, and talons of the first sea-eagles, shared with the older tropical lineage. It is peculiar insofar as it has a black band at the end of the tail in adult birds, similar to juvenile Madagascar Fish-eagles (which look like a smaller, darker version of this bird, but are not very closely related). Its distribution indicates that this species evolved fairly independently of other sea-eagle lineages, but the molecular data tentatively suggests it is possibly closer to the Holarctic species.(Wink et al. 1996) | ||
| + | |||
| + | It diverged from its common ancestor with other species soon after the Holarctic and the tropical lineages split. Dependent on the interpretation of a possible Early Oligocene sea-eagle fossil from Egypt, this happened either at the very start or the end of the Oligocene, somewhere between 34 and 25 mya[2]. Apparently, this species achieved its current, essentially land-locked distribution peculiar among sea-eagles due to the collision of Indian Plate with Eurasia. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Thus, although the exact timing is not well resolved, it is quite certain that Pallas's Sea-eagles are the descendants of those sea-eagles which inhabited the northwestern Bay of Bengal when it was a shallow straits separating mainland Asia from India, which still was an island at that time. | ||
| + | ==Habitat== | ||
| + | Breeds near lakes and large rivers, sometimes inland seas, sometimes coastal in winter. Occurs up to 5,000m in Tibet. Spends much time perched in a waterside tree or rocky promontory. | ||
| + | ==Behaviour== | ||
| + | Its diet consists primarily of large freshwater fish. | ||
==External Links== | ==External Links== | ||
[[Category:Birds]] [[Category:Missing Images]] | [[Category:Birds]] [[Category:Missing Images]] | ||
Revision as of 16:14, 16 July 2007
- Haliaeetus leucoryphus
Identification
Pallas's Fish Eagle Pallas's Sea-eagle (Haliaeetus leucoryphus), also known as Pallas's Fish-eagle or Band-Tailed Fish-eagle, is a large, brownish sea-eagle. It has a light brown hood over a white face. The wings are dark brown and the back rufous, darker underneath. The tail is black with a wide, distinctive white stripe. Underwings have a white band. Juveniles are overall darker with no band on the tail. It is usually 76-84 cm (30-34 in) in length and its wingspan can reach 205 cm (81 in).
Distribution
They can be found in Central Asia - between the Caspian Sea and the Yellow Sea, from Kazakhstan and Mongolia to the Himalayas and northern India. A migrant in northern parts of its breeding range leaving in October to winter from Iran to India and rarely to northern Indochina, returning from February onwards.
Formerly bred in the extreme east of the Western Palearctic to the north of the Caspian Sea and once o regular visitor to the Volga region and Ukraine in summer and Iraq in winter, today this is a rare vagrant in the Western Palearctic esspecially outside the area of the former USSR. There are three old records for northern Europe, in Finland, Norway and Poland, all were in June-July and involved immature birds. More recently, in March 1992 one was recorded in the Warta Valley, Poland but a bird seen in Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands in 1976 was probably an escape.
Taxonomy
This species is the most hard-to-place sea-eagle. Among the species of its genus, it has no close living relatives. mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data is unable to reliably suggest a phylogenetic place for it among the sea-eagles. However, some information can be drawn from the molecular data, and especially from morphology and biogeography:
This species retains the ancestral dark eye, bill, and talons of the first sea-eagles, shared with the older tropical lineage. It is peculiar insofar as it has a black band at the end of the tail in adult birds, similar to juvenile Madagascar Fish-eagles (which look like a smaller, darker version of this bird, but are not very closely related). Its distribution indicates that this species evolved fairly independently of other sea-eagle lineages, but the molecular data tentatively suggests it is possibly closer to the Holarctic species.(Wink et al. 1996)
It diverged from its common ancestor with other species soon after the Holarctic and the tropical lineages split. Dependent on the interpretation of a possible Early Oligocene sea-eagle fossil from Egypt, this happened either at the very start or the end of the Oligocene, somewhere between 34 and 25 mya[2]. Apparently, this species achieved its current, essentially land-locked distribution peculiar among sea-eagles due to the collision of Indian Plate with Eurasia.
Thus, although the exact timing is not well resolved, it is quite certain that Pallas's Sea-eagles are the descendants of those sea-eagles which inhabited the northwestern Bay of Bengal when it was a shallow straits separating mainland Asia from India, which still was an island at that time.
Habitat
Breeds near lakes and large rivers, sometimes inland seas, sometimes coastal in winter. Occurs up to 5,000m in Tibet. Spends much time perched in a waterside tree or rocky promontory.
Behaviour
Its diet consists primarily of large freshwater fish.
