Paramount Eagle
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For more information about native eagles, see this post.
Paramount
Eagle, Aquila spilovasilias
L 90-110 cm, WS 1.8-2 m (180-200 cm), Family: Accipitridae
IUCN Conservation Status: Vulnerable (VU)
Description:
Large
raptor with long, broad wings. Smaller of the two native eagles, smaller than
the Novasola Sea Eagle. Head and bill seem proportionally small, tail square to
slightly wedge-shaped and relatively long. Brownish overall, with a dark tail,
belly, and face and a reddish neck, back, and shoulders; feet yellow, bill
yellow with a gray tip. Tail ends in a light colored band, wings spotted,
undertail coverts light. Juveniles darker and lack reddish color, tail light
with a dark band. Overall similar in appearance to the Golden Eagle of North
America and Asia, though smaller. Apart from size, may best differentiated from
Sea Eagle by red-brown color, smaller head and bill, longer tail, and wing
spots.
Voice:
Generally
silent. Primary vocalizations, when given, are high-pitched piping notes like
an injured or whining dog. They may also chirp, click their beaks, and hiss.
Habitat:
Range
covers the entirety of Novasola, including Kosatka and the Francis Islands.
They prefer open to semi-open areas like prairie, chapparal, scrubland,
savannah, and tundra, as well as mountains, rocky cliffs and canyons. They can
be found at high elevations, including mountain peaks, and are numerous in all
three major mountain chains, especially the Paramounts. They avoid developed
areas and continuous forest.
Discussion:
One
of two eagles native to Novasola, the Paramount Eagle is smaller than the Novasola
Sea Eagle, but unlike the Sea Eagle the Paramount is not restricted to coastal
or riparian ecosystems, and outnumbers the other eagle in much of Novasola’s
interior, especially in the central steppe and the Morning and Paramount
mountain ranges. It is from the latter range that the Paramount Eagle gets its
common name. Paramount Eagles belong to the genus Aquila, along with
Golden Eagles, Imperial Eagles, Steppe Eagles and others. Paramounts are
closely related to Goldens and are usually considered a sister species. Paramount
Eagles bear a strong resemblance to Greater Spotted Eagles, once also
considered an Aquila species but now listed under the genus Clanga.
Paramount
Eagles prefer open, or semi-open, spaces like prairie, scrubland, savannah, and
tundra, especially near cliffs or large rocky outcrops. They are most common in
Novasola’s interior where there is less competition with sea eagles, especially
in more arid or mountainous regions. Eagles build large nests on the sides of
steep rock faces overlooking hunting grounds. Mated pairs usually build two
nests which they alternate between, and they return to the same nests year
after year. Because of their constant and continual nest construction, the
nests themselves can be enormous, averaging around seven feet wide and three
feet deep, though the largest Paramount Eagle nest on record was eighteen feet
tall. Despite the eagle’s size, they are incredibly fast and nimble fliers, and
surprisingly acrobatic. During breeding, Paramount Eagles engage in courtship
flights, like the Novasola Sea Eagle, but these flights are far less daring,
instead composed of a series of upward flights and steep dives together. During
these flights, both the male and female will carry stones, sticks, or bones and
will continually drop and catch them in mid-air. This is very similar to
courtship rituals in the closely related Golden Eagle. Males perform a similar
flight, without the rock-catching, as a territorial display. Both sexes help
build and maintain the nest, and both aid in incubating and rearing young.
Juvenile eagles stay with the parents for one to two years and take five years
to reach sexual maturity.
Though
they are among the largest birds of prey on Novasola, the majority of the Paramount
Eagle’s diet is composed of small prey. They typically hunt small to
medium-sized mammals like ground squirrels, marmots, pika, hare and rabbits, as
well as birds like pigeons, corvids, and ducks. However, they are capable of taking
on larger prey and will occasionally hunt prey like geese, swans, cranes,
badgers, foxes, deer, and sheep, especially fawns and lambs. Paramount Eagles
have been observed attacking mountain goats and sheep by dragging them off
cliffs, allowing them to fall to their deaths. In rare instances they have even
been seen killing seals, coyotes, young bears, and domestic livestock like
fowls, calves, and dogs. Eagles are also prolific scavengers, able to bully
most other birds from a kill site, with the exception of the Novasola Condor,
which outcompetes the eagles for large carcasses, and they avoid aquatic prey
to lessen competition with Novasola Sea Eagles, though when conflicts arise the
Paramount more often than not beats out the Sea Eagle, despite their smaller
size. In general, the Paramount Eagle’s diet and hunting strategies are similar
to that of its close relative, the Golden Eagle. However uncommon, the eagles’
record of killing livestock has made the bird notorious among ranchers who view
the eagle as a pest and threat to their business. Because of this, some
ranchers will intentionally hunt, kill, and poison eagles on their property,
despite the illegality and the numerous protections granted to eagles. In the
past the Paramount Eagle was almost threatened with extinction after decades of
over-hunting, poisoning, predator control efforts, and habitat destruction, but
they have seen remarkable comebacks after protections were put in place, and
they are presently no longer listed as endangered.
The
Paramount Eagle gets its common name from the Paramount range, where they
outnumber most other large raptors and where their population density is
highest. For this reason they are heavily associated with the region, and with
mountains in general. They are also often used as a symbol of rugged wilderness,
as they avoid areas with even moderate human development and nesting sites are inaccessible.
Where the Paramount Eagle has its most profound cultural significance though is
with Novasola’s indigenous peoples, especially the prairie Yukandaluk tribes,
who call the bird manatixlaq. Eagles are powerful spiritual icons in
most Native American cultures, including on Novasola, where they are revered
and their feathers are used in many sacred rituals and ceremonies, and they
feature prominently in mythology and storytelling. Yukandaluk tribes, which were
located mainly in the island’s interior, overlapped in range with the manatixlaq
and thus this eagle is especially sacred to them as Novasola Sea Eagles are to
coastal tribes. Many of the conservation efforts aimed at restoring Paramount
Eagle populations are partnered with indigenous groups and tribal organizations.
Most
obvious when soaring high or diving fast for prey, the Paramount Eagle instantly
draws attention and inspires awe with its great size, strength, and agility. Among
endemic birds its hunting abilities are unrivaled, with its huge talons, sharp
beak, and dominating disposition, and they command their kills, carcasses, and
territories against almost all would-be competitors. Their power and grace
continue to inspire people today just as they had Reichwald during the NRC
expeditions.
“Though
uncommon to the civilized and cultivated places of the Fastwaters and
unfamiliar to its residents, the Paramount Eagle reigns chiefly over the capacious
wildernesses and virgin lands of the island’s remote country. Indeed, as their moniker
suggests, these birds are at their greatest numbers along the eastern slopes of
Paramounts where, apart from the occasional miner or hermitic homesteader,
western society has yet to conquer. I have seen more Eagles there than in other
country, but have also encountered many in the Stone Hills and Cook Mountains,
as well as the north slopes of the Towers. They are numerous along the rivers Roosevelt
and Massalick; at the latter I observed two Eagles cooperatively diving at and preying
upon ground squirrels.
Despite
their grand and imposing bulk, the Paramount Eagle has a swiftness uncharacteristic
of its endowment. Though it spends the majority of its time soaring with whole
minutes between each wingbeat, they can dive at incredible speeds and maneuver
with surprising grace, and I would entreat any skeptics to watch an Eagle take
down a bounding jackrabbit.
…
The
nests of the Eagle are placed aside rock faces and escarpments of the steepest
variety, out of reach from all but the most daring and ingenious nest-raiders.
I myself have tried at stealing an egg from an Eagle nest to no success, and
the process nearly saw me killed. In my youthful foolishness, I attempted once
to approach a nest placed in a crag fifty some feet above the ground. Across
from the nest site was an opposing cliff face, which I had managed to climb
down to from an overlook above. My plan was to cross the chasm atop a fallen
tree, still rooted in the cliffside beside me, which had wedged its crown into
the rocks a few feet above the nest. When I had inched my way three-quarters across,
the birds returned to the nest, and feeling unsafe and unpleased with my presence,
began to accost me, verbally at first and then physically, until I had lost my composure
and nearly fallen to my grim fate. Were it not for the loud blasts from my
travelling companions shotgun that scared the Eagles off, I would have now only
Saint Peter for company.
…
The
prairie Indian tribes, in their own admiration for the Eagle, regularly invoke
the power, might, and beauty of the bird. They adorn their garments, and their arrows
and war axes and war clubs, with eagle tail feathers, they perform ritual ‘Eagle
Dances’ and the killing of an eagle is a rite of sorts for upcoming young
warriors, which the men commemorate with tattoos.” – Native Birds of
Novasola, 1912