Nisaetus


Nisaetus, the crested hawk-eagles, is a genus of raptor in the subfamily Aquilinae, found mainly in tropical Asia. They were earlier placed within the genus Spizaetus but molecular studies show that the Old World representatives of that genus are closer to the genus Ictinaetus than to the New World Spizaetus. They are slender-bodied, medium-sized hawk-eagles with rounded wings, long feathered legs, barred wings, crests and usually adapted to forest habitats.

Taxonomy and species

These Old World species were formerly placed in the genus Spizaetus. They were moved to the resurrected genus Nisaetus based on the results of molecular genetic studies published in 2005 and 2007. The genus Nisaetus had been introduced in 1836 by the English naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson with the mountain hawk-eagle as the type species. The genus name Nisaetus combines the Medieval Latin nisus for a sparrowhawk with the Ancient Greek aetos meaning "eagle". The genus contains ten species.
ImageScientific nameCommon nameDistribution
Nisaetus kelaarti Legge's hawk-eaglesouthern India to Sri Lanka
Nisaetus nanus Wallace, 1868Wallace's hawk-eagleBrunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand
Nisaetus nipalensis Mountain hawk-eagleIndia, Nepal to Thailand, Taiwan and Japan
Nisaetus alboniger Blyth's hawk-eagleMalay Peninsula, Singapore, Sumatra and Borneo
Nisaetus bartelsi Stresemann, 1924Javan hawk-eagleJava
Nisaetus lanceolatus Temminck & Schlegel, 1844Sulawesi hawk-eagleSulawesi and its satellite islands of Buton, Muna, Banggai and Sula Islands
Nisaetus pinskeri Preleuthner and Gamauf, 1998Pinsker's hawk-eagleLeyte, Samar, Negros and Mindanao in the Philippines
Nisaetus philippensis Gould, 1863Philippine hawk-eaglePhilippines
Nisaetus cirrhatus Changeable hawk-eagleIndia and Sri Lanka, and from the southeast rim of the Himalaya across Southeast Asia to Indonesia and the Philippines
Nisaetus floris Flores hawk-eagleFlores, Lombok and Sumbawa in the Lesser Sundas