Hieraaetus Explained

The genus Hieraaetus, sometimes known as small eagles or hawk-eagles, denotes a group of smallish eagles usually placed in the accipitrid subfamilies Buteoninae[1] or Aquilinae.

They are generally medium-sized birds of prey inhabiting Europe, Asia, Africa, New Guinea and Australia. However, a recently extinct species, the New Zealand Haast's eagle, was the largest eagle ever known, weighing up to 17kg (37lb), with a 3m (10feet) wingspan.

Taxonomy and species

The genus Hieraaetus was introduced in 1844 by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup with the booted eagle as the type species.[2] [3] The name combines the Ancient Greek hierax meaning "hawk" with aetos meaning "eagle".[4]

Molecular genetic research has found Hieraaetus to be polyphyletic with Aquila.

Hieraaetus kienerii was found to be most distinct,[5] [6] and has been assigned to a separate genus, Lophotriorchis.[7]

After DNA sequences from remains of the extinct giant Haast's eagle were found to be similar to those of the little eagle,[8] it has been reclassified from Harpagornis moorei to the genus Hieraeetus.[9]

The British Ornithological Union moved Bonelli's and booted eagles to Aquila in 2005, but was silent on the position of the non-European Ayres', little, and pygmy eagles.[10]

This could create a taxonomic problem: the booted eagle is the type species of Hieraaetus, moving it would make that name a junior synonym of Aquila. Consequently, should any other hawk-eagles be retained as a distinct group, they would need to get a different genus name. As of 2014, the BOU lists the booted eagle on their Category D and E lists as H. pennatus, not A. pennata.[11]

Christidis and Boles (2008) used an alternative approach. Accepting that both Aquila and Hieraaetus are polyphyletic, they moved spilogaster and fasciatus to the genus Aquila and retained the other former Hieraaetus group along with morphnoides and Aquila wahlbergi within the new delimitation of Hieraaetus.[12]

Sometimes the entire genus is merged into Aquila. This was the approach taken with The Clements Checklist between 2001 and 2009: starting in the 2001 revisions to the 5th edition,[13] and retained in the printed 6th edition of 2007.[14]

The Clements Checklist, in its 2009 revisions, followed the same approach as Christidis & Boles, moving Aquila wahlbergi into Hieraaetus; restoring the booted, little and Ayres' eagles back to Hieraaetus.[15]

The pygmy eagle, or New Guinea hawk-eagle, H. morphnoides weiskei was formerly considered a subspecies of the little eagle H. morphnoides; it has been recognized as a separate species by some authorities.[16]

The genus contains five species.[17]

Image Scientific name Common NameDistribution
Hieraaetus wahlbergiWahlberg's eagleAfrica
Hieraaetus ayresiiAfrica
Hieraaetus pennatusEurasia and Africa
Hieraaetus weiskeiPygmy eagleNew Guinea
Hieraaetus morphnoidesLittle eagleAustralia

Former species

Image Scientific name Common NameDistribution
Aquila spilogaster
(formerly H. fasciatus spilogaster
or A. fasciatus spilogaster)		African hawk-eagleSub-Saharan Africa
excluding rainforests
Aquila fasciata
(formerly H. fasciatus)		Bonelli's eagleMediterranean
and southern Asia
Lophotriorchis kienerii
(formerly H. kienerii)		Rufous-bellied eagleAsia
Some authorities retain Bonelli's eagle and the African hawk-eagle in Hieraaetus. Also, some retain Wahlberg's eagle in Aquila, whilst still recognizing Hieraaetus as a separate genus.

References

Notes and References

  1. Book: Peters. James Lee. Check-list of birds of the world: volume 1. 1931. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.. Digitized copy
  2. Book: Kaup, Johann Jakob . Johann Jakob Kaup . 1844 . Classification der Saugethiere und Vogel . German . Darmstadt . Carl Wilhelm Leske . 120 .
  3. Book: Mayr . Ernst . Ernst Mayr . Cottrell . G. William . 1979 . Check-List of Birds of the World . 1 . 2nd . Museum of Comparative Zoology . Cambridge, Massachusetts . 383 .
  4. Book: Jobling, James A. . 2010. The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Christopher Helm . London . 978-1-4081-2501-4 . 192 .
  5. Lerner . H. R. L. . Mindell . D. P. . 2005 . Phylogeny of eagles, Old World vultures, and other Accipitridae based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . 37 . 2 . 327–346 . 10.1016/j.ympev.2005.04.010 . 15925523 . 2005MolPE..37..327L . 2008-10-04 . 2011-06-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110606125031/http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hlerner/LM2005.pdf . dead . proof
  6. Jan Ove Gjershaug (2006) Taxonomy and conservation status of hawk-eagles (genus Nisaetus) in South-East Asia. Thesis. Norwegian University of Science and Technology Fulltext
  7. Haring. E.. Kvaløy. K.. Gjershaug. J.-O.. Røv. N.. Gamauf. A.. Convergent evolution and paraphyly of the hawk-eagles of the genus Spizaetus (Aves, Accipitridae) – phylogenetic analyses based on mitochondrial markers. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research. 2007. 45. 4. 353–365. 10.1111/j.1439-0469.2007.00410.x. PDFalternate location "Despite the fact that its sister group has not been identified so far, it is advisable to separate it from the genus Hieraaetus and treat it as a different genus. ... Therefore, we propose to give the monotypic species Hieraaetus kienerii the resurrected name Lophotriorchis Sharpe, 1874."
  8. Bunce. M.. Szulkin. M. Lerner. HRL. Barnes. I. Shapiro. B. Ancient DNA provides new insights into the evolutionary history of New Zealand's extinct giant eagle.. PLOS Biol. 2005. 3. 1. e9. 10.1371/journal.pbio.0030009. 15660162. 539324. etal . free .
  9. Evans . Kate . Return of the Lost Birds . New Zealand Geographic . November 2018 . 154 . 30 . En . 0113-9967.
  10. Recommended in
    Sangster. George. Collinson. J. Martin. Helbig. Andreas J.. Knox. Alan G.. Parkin. David T.. Taxonomic recommendations for British birds: third report. Ibis. 10 October 2005. 147. 4. 821–826. 10.1111/j.1474-919X.2005.00483.x. 250043960 . free.
    Also summarized in
    Collinson. Martin. Splitting headaches? Recent taxonomic changes affecting the British and Western Palearctic lists. British Birds. 1 June 2006. 99. 306–323. 2 July 2014.
  11. Web site: Category D species. British Ornithologists' Union. 8 July 2014. Web site: Category E species. British Ornithologists' Union. 8 July 2014.
  12. Les Christidis & Walter E Boles (2008) Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. CSIRO publishing.
  13. Web site: Lepage. Denis. Booted Eagle (Hieraaetus pennatus) (Gmelin, 1788). Avibase. 21 June 2014. (See also similar pages for the other species.)
  14. Book: Clements. James F.. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th. June 2007. Cornell University Press. Ithaca, New York. 47–48.
  15. Web site: The Clements Checklist team. Updates & Corrections – December 2009. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. 21 June 2014. 23 December 2009. Pages 47-48, Wahlberg’s Eagle Aquila wahlbergi, Booted Eagle Aquila pennata, Little Eagle Aquila morphnoides, Ayres’s Hawk-Eagle Aquila ayresii. All of these eagles belong in the genus Hieraaetus ... Rufous-bellied Eagle Aquila kienerii This species is not a member of the genus Aquila; it should be placed in the monotypic genus Lophotriorchis .
  16. Web site: The Clements Checklist Team. Updates & Corrections: September 2012. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. 2 July 2014. 2012. Page 48, Little Eagle Hieraaetus morphnoides. Elevate the monotypic group Little Eagle (Pygmy) (Hieraaetus morphnoides weiskei) to species rank as Pygmy Eagle (Hieraaetus weiskei). Reference: Gjershaug, J.O., H.R.L. Lerner, and O.H. Diserud. 2009. Taxonomy and distribution of the Pygmy Eagle Aquila (Hieraaetus) weiskei (Accipitriformes: Accipitridae). Zootaxa number 2326: 24–38..
  17. Web site: Hoatzin, New World vultures, Secretarybird, raptors – IOC World Bird List . 2023-07-29 . www.worldbirdnames.org.

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