Black Hawk-Eagle (Spizaetus tyrannus)

Black Hawk-Eagle

Subspecies

Monotypic species

Genus

The genus Spizaetus is a genus of ten species. It is a tropical genus of forest eagles, closely related to a couple of other genera of specialised eagles. There is a large variation in size – members of this genus range from small to rather large eagles, and are variable in their proportions. The common thread is to be found in their basic outline – they are all slender birds with short, rounded wings and rounded tails (well adapted to manoeuvre through dense forest). Most, but not all, are crested.

Physical charateristics

General colour black, speckled white below, with barred wings and tail. Usually seen slowly soaring. The wings appear elliptical, narrower at base. The tail is long and narrow, usually not fanned. The four grey vertical bars of the tail quills are quite noticeable and the wing quills are barred with a pale area at their bases. Perched, the black, whitechecked colour, feathered tarsi, and slight crest with whitish line above the eye should be distinctive.

Listen to the sound of Black Hawk-Eagle

[audio:https://planetofbirds.com/MASTER/ACCIPITRIFORMES/Accipitridae/sounds/Black Hawk-Eagle.mp3]

Copyright remark: Most sounds derived from xeno-canto

wingspan min.:	135	cm	wingspan max.:	145	cm
size min.:	58	cm	size max.:	71	cm
incubation min.:	42	days	incubation max.:	45	days
fledging min.:	70	days	fledging max.:	45	days
broods:	1		eggs min.:	1
			eggs max.:	1

Range

Latin America : Central Mexico to Northeast Argentina. The Black Hawk-Eagle is to be found in the tropical lowlands of the New World, mostly in partially forested areas from central Mexico to eastern Peru, southern Brazil, and parts of Argentina.

Habitat

All kind of forests but mostly a (fairly common) bird of semi-open situations, rather than primarily a rain forest species like the Ornate Hawk-eagle. It is a lowland species, but with a fairly wide tolerance, up to 2000 meter.

Reproduction

A stick nest of about four-and-a-half feet in diameter is built in tall trees (sometimes palms) about 17-20 meter from the ground. nest is built in smaller branches rather than crotch of large branch. The female brings new marterial throughout nesting period to the nest. The incubation period (in captivity) about 45 days. Both parents care or the young which fledge after about 70 days. Young have a long dependency period after fledging which could explain why adults only nest once in three years.

Feeding habits

Feeds on mammals, birds, reptiles (snakes). Mammals are mailny hunted arboreal like small monkees, oppossums and bats. Hunts from a perced position, also seen soaring high.

Video Black Hawk-Eagle

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Mtz3bODJIk

Conservation

This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size may be moderately small to large, but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
The Black Hawk-Eagle is to be found in the tropical lowlands of the New World, mostly in partially forested areas from central Mexico to eastern Peru, southern Brazil, and parts of Argentina. Regular species in Suriname in forest.

Migration

Sedentary in all of its range.

Distribution map

Black Hawk-Eagle distribution range map

Planet of Birds