Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Accipitriformes > Accipitridae > Hieraaetus > Hieraaetus morphnoides

Hieraaetus morphnoides (Little Eagle)

Synonyms: Aquila morphnoides (homotypic)

Wikipedia Abstract

The little eagle (Hieraaetus morphnoides) is a very small eagle native to Australia, measuring 45–55 cm (17–21.5 inches) in length and weighing 815 g (1.8 lb) – roughly the size of a peregrine falcon. It tends to inhabit open woodland, grassland and arid regions, shunning dense forest. It is a near relative of both the Palearctic booted eagle and the massive but now extinct Haast's eagle of New Zealand.
View Wikipedia Record: Hieraaetus morphnoides

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
2
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
16
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 4.9368
EDGE Score: 1.78117
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  1.744 lbs (791 g)
Birth Weight [2]  62 grams
Female Weight [4]  2.092 lbs (949 g)
Male Weight [4]  1.396 lbs (633 g)
Weight Dimorphism [4]  49.9 %
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates)
Diet - Ectothermic [3]  40 %
Diet - Endothermic [3]  40 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  10 %
Diet - Scavenger [3]  10 %
Forages - Aerial [3]  10 %
Forages - Canopy [3]  10 %
Forages - Mid-High [3]  10 %
Forages - Ground [3]  70 %
Clutch Size [6]  2
Clutches / Year [1]  1
Fledging [1]  61 days
Incubation [5]  38 days
Mating Display [2]  Non-acrobatic aerial display
Mating System [2]  Monogamy
Maximum Longevity [7]  10 years
Raptor Research Conservation Priority [8]  102
Snout to Vent Length [1]  19 inches (47 cm)
Wing Span [5]  3.87 feet (1.18 m)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Southwest Australia Australia No
Wallacea East Timor, Indonesia No

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Colpocephalum turbinatum[11]
Degeeriella fulva[12]
Laemobothrion maximum[12]
Porrocaecum circinum <Unverified Name>[12]

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 4Marchant, S.; Higgins, PJ (eds.) 1993. The handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic birds, Vol. 2., raptors to lapwings. Oxford University Press, Melbourne
♦ 5del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 6Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
♦ 7de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 8Buechley ER, Santangeli A, Girardello M, et al. Global raptor research and conservation priorities: Tropical raptors fall prey to knowledge gaps. Divers Distrib. 2019;25:856–869. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12901
♦ 9Olsen, J., Judge, D., Fuentes, E., Rose, AB and Debus, S. (2010). Diets of Wedge-tailed Eagles (Aquila audax) and Little Eagles (Hieraaetus morphnoides) breeding near Canberra, Australia Journal of Raptor Research 44: 50–61
♦ 10Myrmecobius fasciatus (Dasyuromorphia: Myrmecobiidae), CHRISTINE ELIZABETH COOPER, MAMMALIAN SPECIES 43(881):129–140 (2011)
♦ 11Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 12Species Interactions of Australia Database, Atlas of Living Australia, Version ala-csv-2012-11-19
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0