The solitary eagle or montane solitary eagle (''Buteogallus solitarius'') is a large

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biogeogra ...

eagle. It is also known as the black solitary eagle.

Range and habitat

The solitary eagle is native to

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and Central and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. It is found in mountainous or hilly forests, at elevations between 600 m and 2,200 m. The frequent reports from lowlands are usually misidentifications of another species, usually the common black hawk or great black hawk; no reports from lowlands have been confirmed. It is rare that in all areas of its range and poorly known. Very little is known about its diet, other than that it appears to have often been predating large

snake Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...

s and one adult pair was seen hunting

deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...

fawns. The remains of a

chachalaca Chachalacas are galliform birds from the genus ''Ortalis''. These birds are found in wooded habitats in the far southern United States (Texas), Mexico, and Central and South America. They are social, can be very noisy and often remain fairly ...

were noted in one nest.

Description

The adult solitary eagle is uniformly dark gray, often appearing black, with white markings on the tail. It is and has a wingspan. With a body mass of approximately , it appears to rival its similarly-weighted

sister species In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

, the Chaco eagle, as one of the larger living members of the

Buteoninae The Buteoninae are a subfamily of birds of prey which consists of medium to large, broad-winged species. They have large, powerful, hooked beaks for tearing flesh from their prey, strong legs, and powerful talons. They also have extremely keen ...

subfamily, although the black-chested buzzard-eagle is similar or only marginally smaller in weight, while large Milvini from the genus Haliaeetus and Icthyophaga (such as the

Steller's sea eagle Steller's sea eagle (''Haliaeetus pelagicus''), also known as the Pacific sea eagle or white-shouldered eagle, is a very large Diurnality, diurnal bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. It was described first by Peter Simon Pallas in 1811. No ...

) can be significantly larger. It appears very similar to the common black hawk and great black hawk, but is much larger and has significantly broader wings, extending nearly to the tip of the tail. The exceptionally broad wings are one of the prime distinguishing characteristics of this species. Its body also has quite a thickset appearance. The juvenile is mottled brown and tan, with markings around the eyes. It otherwise resembles the adult.

Relationships

Recent

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

studies have shown that the solitary eagle is closely related to the black-hawks.

References

* Howell, Steve N.G., and Sophie Webb. "A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America." Oxford University Press, New York, 1995. () * Jones, H. Lee. ''Birds of Belize.'' University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas, 2003. *"Raptors of the World" by Ferguson-Lees, Christie, Franklin, Mead & Burton. Houghton Mifflin (2001), .

Range and habitat

Description

Relationships

References

Further reading