These prey birds are all characterized by strong legs and feet with sharp talons and an opposable hind claw. The bills of these birds are sharp and hooked as they are used to tear flesh.
The birds have slotted high lift wings in order to provide them with increased lift and gliding ability. They often have light wing loads and are best suited for soaring.
Here is a picture of a Bald Eagle in flight. Notice the distinct slotting on its primary flight feathers.
The plumage of these birds normally utilize duller colors of grey, brown and black.
The Old World Vultures have bare heads without feathers, which is thought to aid in thermoregulation.
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| Old World Vulture (Accipitridae) |
Not to be confused with the New World Vultures which belong to their own family Cathartidae. A picture of this bird can be seen on my previous post.
Accipitriformes are one of the most diverse orders of birds. One aspect of this order that varies among species is size. An example of this variation is size in seen in the difference between the a Pearl Kite (3oz, left) and the Bald Eagle (~12lbs, right).
Here we can see the striking difference in size between these two birds. Despite their differences they both share the same hooked talons, bill, and opposable hind claw. These birds also share the same family- Accipitridae.
These birds were previously considered in the order Falconiformes. However, Falcons (Falconidae) has been since removed from this order and has taken the ordinal name along with it.
Sources
Wikipedia
Tree of Life
Looks great!
ReplyDeleteTim, I am confused. Are both New World and Old World Vultures classified in Accipitiriformes? I read that they are both vultures by virtue of convergent evolution, not actual evolutionary relationships, so how did they end up in the same order? And I don't believe that New World Vultures are actually Accipitiriformes, even though that is how they are currently classified. I think the scientists have that one wrong. Thoughts?
ReplyDeleteI heard about how Bald Eagles do a mating dance that involves locking talons and falling up high and then diving until right before they hit the ground- its cool to hear a little about their morphological characteristics that surround that
ReplyDeleteThere is still some disagreement on the classification of old world and new world vultures. I believe that the prevailing thought is that they are both in Accipitriformes now, but in different Families.
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