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Little Eagle

Little Eagle

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The Little Eagle (Aquila morphnoides) is a very small eagle
Eagle
Eagles are large birds of prey which are members of the bird family Accipitridae, and belong to several genera which are not necessarily closely related to each other. Most of the more than 60 species occur in Eurasia and Africa...

 native to Australasia
Australasia ecozone
The Australasian zone is an ecological region that is coincident, but not synonymous , with the geographic region of Australasia...

, measuring 45–55 cm
Centimetre
A centimetre is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one hundredth of a metre, which is the current SI base unit of length. Centi is the SI prefix for a factor of...

 (17–21.5 inch
Inch
An inch is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including Imperial units, and United States customary units. There are 36 inches in a yard and 12 inches in a foot...

es) in length and weighing 815 g
Gram
The gram , ; symbol g, is a unit of mass.Originally defined as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure water equal to the cube of the hundredth part of a metre, and at the temperature of melting ice" , a gram is now defined as one one-thousandth of the SI base unit, the kilogram, or...

 (1.8 lb
Pound (mass)
The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...

) – roughly the size of a Peregrine Falcon
Peregrine Falcon
The Peregrine Falcon , also known simply as the Peregrine, and historically as the "Duck Hawk" in North America, is a cosmopolitan bird of prey in the family Falconidae. It is a large, crow-sized falcon, with a blue-gray back, barred white underparts, and a black head and "moustache"...

. It tends to inhabit open woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is an area covered in trees, usually at low density, forming an open habitat, allowing sunlight to penetrate between the trees, and limiting shade. Woodland may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to...

, grassland
Grassland
Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...

 and arid regions
Arid
A region is said to be arid when it is characterized by a severe lack of available water, to the extent of hindering or even preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life...

, shunning dense forest
Forest
A forest is an area with a high density of trees. There are many definitions of a forest, based on the various criteria. These plant communities presently cover approximately 9.4% of the Earth's surface in many different regions and function as habitats for organisms, hydrologic flow modulators,...

. It is a near relative of both the Palearctic
Palearctic
The Palearctic or Palaearctic is one of the eight ecozones dividing the Earth surface.Physically, the Palearctic is the largest ecozone. It includes the terrestrial ecoregions of Europe, Asia north of the Himalaya foothills, northern Africa, and the northern and central parts of the Arabian...

 Booted Eagle
Booted Eagle
The Booted Eagle is a medium-sized bird of prey. It is about 47 centimeters in length and has a wingspan of 120 cm . Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae....

 and, remarkably, the massive but now extinct
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or group of taxa. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species...

 Haast's Eagle
Haast's Eagle
Haast's Eagle , was a massive, now extinct eagle that once lived on the South Island of New Zealand. It is the largest eagle known to have existed. It is believed that these birds are referred to in many legends of the Māori, under the names Pouakai, Hokioi or Hakawai...

 of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...

.