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Species
Near Threatenedvia IUCN
~11 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The crested eagle (Morphnus guianensis) is a large neotropical eagle, the only member of the genus Morphnus. The crested eagle can grow up to 89 cm (35 in) long, with a wingspan up to 176 cm (69 in), and weigh up to 3 kg (6.6 lb). The plumage varies between a light brownish-gray to sooty gray or even blackish in some cases. It has a white throat and a dark spot on the crest and a small dark mask across the eyes. It ranges extensively throughout Central and South America, but not in large numbers, favoring tropical lowland forest. A powerful predator, its diet consist mainly of small mammals, rodents, snakes and smaller birds. Despite their large distribution, they are currently classified as Near Threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, due mainly to habitat loss
Distribution
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Crested Eagle” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.