page_title: Eastern imperial eagle
section_title: Confusion of species
hierarchical_section_title: Eastern imperial eagle / Description / Confusion of species
caption_attribution_description: צולם בגן הזואולוגי בת"א Taken in Tel Aviv Zoological Gardens Aquila heliaca and Aquila pomarina.
context_page_description: The eastern imperial eagle is a large bird of prey that breeds in southeastern Europe and extensively through West and Central Asia. Most populations are migratory and winter in northeastern Africa, the Middle East and South and East Asia. Like all eagles, the eastern imperial eagle is a member of the family Accipitridae. Furthermore, its well feathered legs mark it as a member of the subfamily Aquilinae. It is a large dark colored eagle, with a resemblance to other members of the genus Aquila but it is usually the darkest species in its range. This is an opportunistic predator that mostly selects smallish mammals as prey but also a fairly large proportion of birds, reptile and other prey types, including carrion. Compared to other Aquila eagles, it has a strong preference for the interface of tall woods with plains and other open, relatively flat habitats. Normally, nests are located in large, mature trees and the parents raise around one or two fledglings. The global population is small and declining due to persecution, loss of habitat and prey. It has therefore been IUCN Red Listed as Vulnerable since 1994.
context_section_description: The eastern imperial eagle is typically smaller, being more slender and less bulky and powerful in appearance despite its proportionately larger head and longer neck, than the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos). In some parts of the range, the female imperial eagle probably averages similar size and body mass to the smaller male golden eagle. However, apparently the species can be reliably distinguished by the size of its hallux claw (the enlarged rear talon that accipitrids used as a killing apparatus) which is consistently larger in the golden species. Two female eastern imperial eagles measured 38 and 43 mm (1.5 and 1.7 in) in hallux claw length while a male was about 35.5 mm (1.40 in), whereas the smallest talon measured for an immature male American golden eagle was 44.9 mm (1.77 in). Nonetheless, besides its wider ranging golden cousin, this species is typically the largest, with the largest extremities (i.e. tarsal, tail and bill length) and most powerful booted eagle species in the majority of its range (apart from its rare African winter range) when compared to similar eagles such as others in the genera Aquila and Clanga. Usually, the plumage of the adult eastern imperial eagle is very distinctive. It is considerably darker than other adult Aquila eagles in central Eurasia. Furthermore, all other Eurasian eagles in their range lack the white spots on the wing mantle and greyish under-tail. Given reasonable views, the juvenile imperial eagle is no less distinctive, with its unique tawny-buff covered in brownish streaking, a colour combination not seen in other species. From a distance, the juvenile may give the impression of a dark mantle and chest band with very pale rear body and a blackish tail and remiges against strikingly pale primary wedges. Adults do however strongly resemble their considerably extralimital cousins, the Spanish imperial eagle, but the eastern species has more restricted white on the shoulder and has a slightly more brownish hue in the dark underside feathers, while juvenile Spanish imperials are richly tawny in colour rather than pale buffy and lack brownish streaking on the body. The Spanish species is similar in size and proportions to the eastern imperial but is marginally heavier on average and has an even more protruding head and neck.
  The subadult eastern imperial eagle may be confused with older immature greater spotted eagles (Clanga clanga) but the latter is less contrastingly patterned, without a paler shawl and has greater covert band below (despite the rare hint of one on some imperials) and densely bared flight feathers. Adult greater spotted eagles have similar underwing contrast as juvenile eastern imperial eagles but, beyond plumage characteristics, are distinct for their much smaller head, slightly smaller overall size and relatively broader and shorter wings. Indian spotted eagles (Clanga hastata) tend to show paler lesser under-wing coverts like juvenile eastern imperial eagles but are considerably smaller and differ in all other proportions and plumage features. Although at times described as “very similar”, the eastern imperial eagles are fairly easily told from the golden eagle by being much darker with less broad wings that are held much flatter. The golden eagle, unlike imperial eagles, tends to fly with its wings pointed upwards and have a gradual tapering wing shape (somewhat narrower at the base, broader at the primaries). In golden eagles, the tail generally appears narrower and squarer in shape. At closer range, the pale area on the back of the head and neck in eastern imperial eagle may be suggestive to some of the golden eagle’s golden nape but is always much paler and chalkier in colour, as well as more strongly contrasted by the otherwise dark feathers and is more extensive. Against the somewhat similarly sized but more compact juvenile steppe eagle (Aquila nipalensis), the juvenile eastern imperial eagle does not show a white band on underwing like the steppe. More obviously, the steppe eagle lacks the paler overall colours and contrasting brownish streaki
caption: A captive adult eastern imperial eagle sharing an aviary with a smaller cousin, the lesser spotted eagle.
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