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 bioge ...

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

Range and habitat

The solitary eagle is native to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. 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 The great black hawk (''Buteogallus urubitinga'') is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes the eagles, hawks, and Old World vultures. Taxonomy The great black hawk was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist ...

; 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 vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Ma ...

s and one adult pair was seen hunting

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

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 c ...

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 t ...

, the

Chaco eagle The Chaco eagle (''Buteogallus coronatus'') or crowned solitary eagle, is an endangered bird of prey from eastern and central South America. Typically it is known simply as the crowned eagle which leads to potential confusion with the African '' ...

, as the largest living member 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 The black-chested buzzard-eagle (''Geranoaetus melanoleucus'') is a bird of prey of the hawk and eagle family (Accipitridae). It lives in open regions of South America. This species is also known as the black buzzard-eagle, the gray buzzard-eag ...

is similar or only marginally smaller in weight. It appears very similar to the common black hawk and

, 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 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