NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Mountain Hawk-Eagle
Nisaetus nipalensis Hodgson, 1836
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The mountain hawk-eagle (Nisaetus nipalensis) or Hodgson's hawk-eagle, is a large bird of prey native to Asia. The latter name is in reference to the naturalist, Brian Houghton Hodgson, who described the species after collecting one himself in the Himalayas. A less widely recognized common English name is the feather-toed eagle. Like all eagles, it is in the family Accipitridae. Its feathered tarsus marks this species as a member of the subfamily Aquilinae. It is a confirmed breeding species in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, from India, Nepal (hence the epithet nipalensis) through Bangladesh to Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam and Japan, although its distribution could be wider still as breeding species. Like other Asian hawk-eagles, this species was earlier treated under the genera of Spizaetus but genetic studies have shown this group to be paraphyletic, resulting in the Old World members being placed in Nisaetus (Hodgson, 1836) and separated from the New World species.
Wikipedia contributors, Mountain hawk-eagle; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:38:14.561763+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Nisaetus nipalensis Hodgson, 1836
- Name authority
- Hodgson, 1836
- Common name
- Mountain Hawk-Eagle
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Accipitriformes
- Family
- Accipitridae
- Genus
- Nisaetus
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classAves
- orderAccipitriformes
- familyAccipitridae Vigors, 1824
- genusNisaetus Hodgson, 1836
- speciesNisaetus nipalensis Hodgson, 1836
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Nisaetus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Blyth's Hawk-EagleNisaetus alboniger Blyth, 1845 | AccipitridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Changeable Hawk-EagleNisaetus cirrhatus (J. F. Gmelin, 1788) | AccipitridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Flores Hawk-EagleNisaetus floris (E. J. O. Hartert, 1898) | AccipitridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Sulawesi Hawk-EagleNisaetus lanceolatus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1845) | AccipitridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Philippine Hawk-EagleNisaetus philippensis (Gould, 1863) | AccipitridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Pinsker's Hawk-EagleNisaetus pinskeri (Preleuthner & Gamauf, 1998) | AccipitridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Javan Hawk-EagleNisaetus bartelsi (Stresemann, 1924) | AccipitridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Legge's Hawk-EagleNisaetus kelaarti (Legge, 1878) | AccipitridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Wallace's Hawk-EagleNisaetus nanus (Wallace, 1868) | AccipitridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Spizaetus nipalensis (Hodgson, 1836) (Hodgson, 1836) | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- Hodgson, & Brian Houghton. (1836). Summary description of some New Species of Falconidae. The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. 6. Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:47J2R. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.