Adalbert's Eagle

About the Adalbert's Eagle

The Spanish imperial eagle, Spanish eagle, Iberian imperial eagle or Adalbert's eagle (Aquila adalberti) is a species of eagle native to the Iberian Peninsula. The binomial commemorates Prince Adalbert of Bavaria. Due to its distinct "epaulettes", old literature often referred to this species as the white-shouldered eagle.

Formerly, the Spanish imperial eagle was considered to be a subspecies of the eastern imperial eagle, then known simply as the imperial eagle, but is now widely recognised as a separate species due to differences in morphology, ecology, and molecular characteristics.

This is a large raptor and quite large eagle, broadly similar in size to its cousin, the eastern imperial eagle, which is found in a considerably different distributional range. Compared to sympatric largish booted eagles, it is somewhat smaller than the golden eagle and somewhat larger than Bonelli's eagle. Spanish imperial eagles can weigh from 2.5 to 4.8 kg (5.5 to 10.6 lb). The average weight of males in a sample of 10 was 3.19 kg (7.0 lb) while that of 17 females was found to be 3.43 kg (7.6 lb). Meanwhile, another sample of 10 unsexed adults weighed an average of 3.93 kg (8.7... Wikipedia →