Haliaeetus is a genus of four species of eagles, closely related to the sea eagles in the genus Ichthyophaga.

Haliaeetus
Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Accipitriformes
Family: Accipitridae
Subfamily: Buteoninae
Genus: Haliaeetus
Savigny, 1809
Type species
Haliaeetus nisis Savigny, 1809
= Falco albicilla Linnaeus, 1758

Taxonomy

The genus Haliaeetus was introduced in 1809 by the French zoologist Marie Jules César Savigny to accommodate a single species, the "L'aigle de mer" with the binomial name Haliaeetus nisus. This is the type species. Savigny's binomial name is now regarded as a junior synonym of Falco albicilla (the white-tailed eagle) that had been described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758.[1][2] The genus name is from Latin haliaetus or haliaetos meaning "sea-eagle" or "osprey".[3]

This genus includes the following four species:[4]

Genus Haliaeetus Savigny, 1809 – two species
Common name Scientific name and subspecies Range Size and ecology IUCN status and estimated population
Bald eagle

 

Haliaeetus leucocephalus
(Linnaeus, 1766)

Two subspecies
  • H. l. leucocephalus (Linnaeus, 1766)
  • H. l. washingtoniensis (Audubon, 1827)
Most of Canada and Alaska, all of the contiguous United States, and northern Mexico
 
Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 LC 



Pallas's fish eagle

 

Haliaeetus leucoryphus
(Pallas, 1771)
Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, China, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Bhutan. Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 EN 


White-tailed eagle

 

Haliaeetus albicilla
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Two subspecies
  • H. a. albicilla - (Linnaeus, 1758)
  • H. a. groenlandicus - Brehm, CL, 1831
Greenland and Iceland across Europe and Asia to as far east as Hokkaido, Japan
 
Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 LC 


Steller's sea eagle

 

Haliaeetus pelagicus
(Pallas, 1811)
Russia, Korea, Japan, China, and Taiwan
 
Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 VU 



References

  1. ^ Savigny, Marie Jules César (1809). Description de l'Égypte: Histoire naturelle (in French). Vol. 1. Paris: Imprimerie impériale. pp. 68, 85.
  2. ^ Mayr, Ernst; Cottrell, G. William, eds. (1979). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 299.
  3. ^ Jobling, James A. "Haliaeetus". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
  4. ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (August 2024). "Hoatzin, New World vultures, Secretarybird, raptors". IOC World Bird List Version 14.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 20 November 2024.