Wahlberg's eagle


Wahlberg's eagle is a bird of prey that is native to sub-Saharan Africa, where it is a seasonal migrant in the woodlands and savannas.
It is named after the Swedish naturalist Johan August Wahlberg. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae.

Description

Wahlberg's eagle is a medium-sized raptor, and the sexes are similar. It is about in length with a wingspan of and a body mass of for males and for females on average. The head has a small crest, and the legs are yellow. The plumage tone is variable but may be dark brown except for dark-streaked grey undersides to the flight feathers, and a barred grey undertail. Light and dark plumage phases occur. A pale variant may be much lighter brown with whitish, rather than grey undertail and flight feather undersides.
While the large brown eagles are generally a tricky group to identify, Wahlberg's eagle have some distinctive features. A small, pointed crest is usually visible. The gape only extends at maximum to the middle of the eye, whereas in lesser spotted eagle, it extends to the back of the eye. Round nostrils are not present in either tawny eagles or steppe eagles, but the two spotted eagles also have round nostrils. In flight, this species is very cross-shaped, with long, evenly wide wings, a slim body, and a narrow, square-ended tail. The wings are held very flat.

Distribution and habitat

In 2004, it was recorded in Virunga National Park.

Behaviour and ecology

Wahlberg's eagle hunts reptiles, small mammals, and birds. The call is a whistled , while perched.
Wahlberg's eagle breeds in most of Africa south of the Sahara. It is a bird of woodland, often near water. It builds a stick nest in the fork of a tree or the crown of a palm tree. The clutch is one or two eggs.

Taxonomy

Studies of marker gene sequences found Wahlberg's eagle belonged to a clade containing Hieraaetus pennatus, H. morphnoides, H. ayeresii, and H. weiskei.
Since then, many taxonomic checklists changed from Aquila wahlbergi to Hieraaetus wahlbergi. However, the African Bird Club and the Second Southern African Bird Atlas Project continue to keep Aquila wahlbergi separate from the Hieraaetus species.