Rufous-bellied Eagle

About the Rufous-bellied Eagle

The rufous-bellied eagle or rufous-bellied hawk-eagle (Lophotriorchis kienerii) is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae that is found in the forested regions of tropical Asia. Relatively small for eagles and contrastingly patterned like a falcon, this species was earlier placed in the genus Hieraaetus and sometimes also in the genus Aquila but thought to be distinctive enough to belong to a separate genus.

This eagle was described as Astur Kienerii and illustrated as Falco Kienerii by "G. S." (Gustave de Sparre, though sometimes erroneously attributed to Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire) in 1834–1835. De Sparre's description was based on a specimen from the Himalayas in the collection of "M. le prince d'Essling".

It was later moved to Limnaetus by Jerdon, the genus Lophotriorchis and still later to Hieraaetus, the so-called "hawk-eagles". A study of the phylogeny of some Hieraaetus species and other eagles indicated that they were nested within the Aquila clade of eagles, resulting in their repositioning. Another molecular study of the eagles suggested that kienerii was distinctive enough to be retained in a separate genus for which the name Kienastur had... Wikipedia →