
Photo: Prashanth N S · CC BY 4.0
Nisaetus cirrhatus
Diet
Birds, mammals, reptiles and other vertebrates
Habitat
Forest and wooded country
Range
Widely across tropical Asia
The changeable hawk-eagle, or crested hawk-eagle, is a large but slender eagle whose plumage varies from pale to dark with age and moult, which gives it its name. Like other booted eagles it has feathered legs. Females are larger than males, on average by about 7%, though the difference can be much greater. Size varies considerably across its range and between subspecies. It was formerly placed in the genus Spizaetus, but the Old World hawk-eagles were moved to Nisaetus when that group proved not to be natural (Wikipedia, general species account).
It is a typical hawk-eagle: an agile forest predator that readily switches between birds, mammals, reptiles and other vertebrates as prey. Of all the members of its genus it is the most widely distributed, adaptable and abundant, occurring widely across tropical Asia (Wikipedia, general species account).