The Beauties Of Bangladesh - Crested Hawk Eagle - Birds

The Beauties Of Bangladesh - Crested Hawk Eagle - Nisaetus cirrhatus

Crested Hawk Eagles come in a vary of crested, crestless, dimorphic (having a faded and a dark morph), and monomorphic (having solely one morph) forms, depending on the subspecies.

N. c. cirrhatus, the nominate species, has a lengthy crest up to 10-14 cm long and one morph form. N. c. andamenensis is smaller, also monomorphic, and has a brief crest around 5 cm long. N. c. ceylanensis is also small in size, has a single morph form, but its crest is around 10 cm long. N. c. limnaeetus is dimorphic with a very short crest 1-3 cm long. N. c. vanheurni is the smallest of all the subspecies, has no crest, and is monomorphic.

In general, dark morph Crested Hawk Eagles have brown wings tipped with black with 4-5 darker bars. The breast and underside are streaked with brown, and the undertail and thighs are thinly barred with white. The floppy crest is long, consisting of round 4 feathers. The chin and throat are white, and the eyes are yellow. The legs are lengthy and feathered, and the lengthy tail has skinny bars.

Pale morphs—existing only when the hen is dimorphic, such as subspecies N. c. limnaeetus—are darkish brown from above with pale wing coverts. The head and neck are rufous with some black streaking, and the underside from the chest to the stomach and flanks is white to buff with black and darkish brown streaks.

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