📸 PhotoPhoto: Sumeet Moghe · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Eastern Imperial Eagle
Aquila heliaca (Eastern Imperial Eagle · カタシロワシ)
🇰🇷 Class II endangered wildlife (Korea)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Its maximum wingspan of 2.15 m is comparable to the height of a front door (about 2.1 m).
- 💡 At 4.5 kg, it weighs slightly less than a 5 kg bag of rice.
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
Site-computed relative index from recorded values; not a formal scientific metric.
📖 1. Overview
The Eastern Imperial Eagle is a large eagle that breeds from southeastern Europe to Central Asia and visits Korea rarely as a winter migrant.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
The body is blackish-brown with a pale golden crown and nape and white patches on the shoulders. It has a prominent protruding head, long wings, and strong legs and talons.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It feeds mainly on small mammals such as hares and ground squirrels, also taking snakes and birds as well as carrion like dead lambs. It builds a stick nest in a tall tree and usually lays 2 eggs, where the older chick sometimes attacks its younger sibling.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
In Korea, it is designated as Class II Endangered Wildlife and visits as a winter migrant.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List VU (2025) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22696048/203686356
- • 멸종위기 야생생물 Ⅱ급 — 국가생물종목록(국립생물자원관) ktsn 120000001615 — https://species.nibr.go.kr/home/mainHome.do?cont_link=009&subMenu=009002&contCd=009002&ktsn=120000001615
- • IUCN Red List category VU — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • Korean protection status: Class II endangered wildlife (Korea)
- • doi.org — avilist.v2026
- • iucnredlist.org — 203686356
- • 국가생물종목록(국립생물자원관) ktsn 120000001615 — https://species.nibr.go.kr/home/mainHome.do?cont_link=009&subMenu=009002&contCd=009002&ktsn=120000001615
- • wikidata.org — Q168976
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Eastern Imperial Eagle cr.jpg
- • nie.re.kr — view.do
- • animaldiversity.org — Aquila heliaca
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Andy Wilson · CC0 1.0
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.