Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)

A sea eagle or fish eagle (also called erne or ern, mostly in reference to the white-tailed eagle) is any of the birds of prey in the genusHaliaeetus^[2] in the bird of prey family Accipitridae.

The genus Haliaeetus was introduced in 1809 by French naturalist Marie Jules César Savigny in his chapter on birds in the Description de l’Égypte.^[3][4] The two fish eagles in the genus Ichthyophaga were found to lie within Haliaeetus in a genetic study in 2005,^[5] they were then moved accordingly. They are very similar to the tropical Haliaeetus species. A prehistoric (i.e. extinct before 1500) form from Maui in the Hawaiian Islands may represent a species or subspecies in this genus.

The relationships to other genera in the family are less clear; they have long been considered closer to the genus Milvus (kites) than to the true eagles in the genus Aquila on the basis of their morphology and display behaviour;^[6][7] more recent genetic evidence agrees with this, but points to their being related to the genus Buteo (buzzards/hawks), as well, a relationship not previously thought close.^[8]

A 2005 molecular study found that the genus is paraphyletic and subsumes Ichthyophaga, the species diverging into a temperate and tropical group.^[9

Go back