Pallas's Sea Eagle
Encyclopedia : P : PA : PAL : Pallas's Sea Eagle
The Pallas's Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus leucoryphus, also known as Pallas's Fish Eagle or Band-Tailed Fish Eagle) is a large, brownish sea eagle. They can be found in Central Asia—West to the Caspian Sea, East to the Yellow Sea, North through Kazakhstan and Mongolia, South along the Himalayas.
Description
It has a light brown hood over a white face. The wings are dark brown and the back rufous, darker underneath. The tail is black with a wide, distinctive white stripe. Underwings have a white band. Juveniles are overall darker with no band on the tail. It is usually 76-84 cm (30-34 in) in length and its wingspan can reach 205 cm (81 in).Its diet consists primarily of large freshwater fish.
Conservation status
The conservation status of the Pallas' Sea Eagle is vulnerable, with a population of about 2,500 to 10,000 remaining. Besides direct maltreatment, humans contribute to the decline of this species through habitat degradation, pollution, and draining or overfishing lakes. In India, the eagle is also threatened by the spread of a water hyacinth (Eichhornia) which spreads over lakes and makes finding prey difficult. The large range is deceptive, as the Pallas's sea eagle is rare and isolated throughout its territory and may not breed in large areas of it.External links
- ARKive - [images and movies of the band-tailed fish-eagle (Haliaeetus leucoryphuscana)]
- [Pallas's Fish Eagle - BirdLife species factsheet] — Info on Conservation status
- [H. leucoryphus range map] (very large and slow to load)
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.