18 de septiembre de 2012

Águilas moteadas · Spotted Eagles

A. Pomerana y A. Moteada, adultos y juveniles
Lesser and Great Spotted Eagles, ad. and juv.
En mi viaje a Israel tuve oportunidad de ver y dibujar dos especies de águilas muy similares y no fáciles de identificar en el campo. El Águila Pomerana (A. pomarina) y el Águila Moteada (A. clanga) tienen un tamaño y colorido similar aunque en plumajes juveniles se aprecian diferencias y los adultos, vistos con detalle, también muestran caracteres propios como el tamaño del pico, el tono del plumaje de la cabeza o la cobertura de las calzas. En cualquier caso, es difícil a veces identificarlas pues se añade el problema de los individuos híbridos de ambas especies. Partiendo de mis notas y alguna fotografía, he realizado un estudio comparativo de adultos y jóvenes de las dos águilas.
On my trip to Israel I was able to see and draw two very similar species of eagles and not easy to identify in the field. The Lesser Spotted Eagle (A. pomarina) and the Greater Spotted Eagle (A. clanga) have similar size and plumage but seen in detail, juveniles and adults show noticeable differences, as beak size, tone of the plumage of the head or extent of legs feathers. The possibiity of finding hibrids of both species makes the problema even bigger.
From my notes and some pictures, I made a comparative study of young and adults of both species.

Águila Pomerana, del natural en Agamon Lake (Israel). Enero de 2008
Lesser Spotted Eagle, from life in Agamon Lake (Israel). January 2008

4 comentarios:

  1. Fantastic studies Juan! Thanks for sharing!

    Paschalis

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  2. Thanks Paschalis, I'm sure you also had great sightings of this birds in Israel!

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  3. Love this one too and the head studies are great! Saw a lot of Greater-spotted Eagles in Hong Kong but have yet to get around to doing any real paintings of them and so far have only managed a small watercolor of an adult in flight over Mai Po Nature Reserve. These paintings will inspire me to try harder so thanks and hope to see more of your studies.

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  4. Thanks Jeremy. They are beautiful animals and sometimes so difficult to tell apart each other! Glad you like the paintings.

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