Birds of Prey

[Greatearth]

I wanna show you amazing thing. I am Korean and I know some amazing place you could see bird of prey.

1.
I just copied and pasted bird of prey in Korea from Wikipedia because it takes too much time to write.

1. Oriental honey-buzzard, Pernis ptilorhynchus
2. Black-eared kite, Milvus migrans
3. White-tailed eagle, Haliaeetus albicilla
4. Steller's sea-eagle, Haliaeetus pelagicus
5. Bearded vulture, Gypaetus barbatus
6. Cinereous vulture, Aegypius monachus
7. Eastern marsh-harrier, Circus spilonotus
8. Northern harrier, Circus cyaneus
9. Pied harrier, Circus melanoleucos
10. Japanese sparrowhawk, Accipiter gularis
11. Eurasian sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus
12. Northern goshawk, Accipiter gentilis
13. Chinese goshawk, Accipiter soloensis
14. Grey-faced buzzard, Butastur indicus
15. Common buzzard, Buteo buteo
16. Upland buzzard, Buteo hemilasius
17. Rough-legged hawk, Buteo lagopus
18. Greater spotted eagle, Clanga clanga
19. Steppe eagle, Aquila nipalensis
20. Eastern imperial eagle, Aquila heliaca
21. Golden eagle, Aquila chrysaetos
22. Mountain hawk-eagle, Nisaetus nipalensis
23. Crested serpent eagle, Spilornis cheela
24. Blakiston's fish owl, Bubo blakistoni
25. Eurasian scops-owl, Otus scops
26. Sunda scops-owl, Otus lempiji
27. Eurasian eagle owl, Bubo bubo
28. Snowy owl, Nyctea scandiaca
29. Himalayan owl, Strix nivicolum
30. Ural owl, Strix uralensis
31. Northern hawk owl, Surnia ulula
32. Little owl, Athene noctua
33. Northern boobook, Ninox japonica
34. Long-eared owl, Asio otus
35. Short-eared owl, Asio flammeus
36. Peregrine falcon, Falco peregrinus
37. Eurasian hobby, Falco subbuteo
38. Common kestrel, Falco tinnunculus
39. Amur falcon, Falco amurensis
40. Merlin, Falco columbarius
41. Saker falcon, Falco cherrug
    

2.
The top largest, most powerful, and most famous bird of preys: Cinereous vulture, Bearded vulture, Steller's sea eagle, White tailed eagle, Golden eagle, Blakiston's fish owl, and Eurasian eagle owl.
All of those birds are winter migratory birds these days beside Eurasian eagle owl and Blakiston's fish owl. Blakiston's fish owl also living in northern part of Korean peninsula. 
I will explain "these days" with explain the birds.


Golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos)
The golden eagle is the most well known bird of prey in the northern hemisphere. Golden eagle in Asia is bigger than Golden eagle in Europe, North America, Africa, West Asia. Especially the area from Kamchatka, Siberia, Mongolia, Central Asia, and Northern China.
I am not sure of golden eagle in Korea. Some says it is subspecies of the smallest golden eagle in Japan. But I think this is wrong information since they are winter migratory birds from northern Asia.

I can't find better map of golden eagle. It says dark brown is resident all year and light brown is for winter. But this isn't 100% accurate map, because they are migratory bird in Korea

*This image is copyright of its original author

White tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla)
The white tailed eagle is very common fish eating eagle in Eurasia. The white tailed eagle forms a species pair with the North American bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). I don't really know size of white tailed eagle coming in Korea. I think white tailed eagle in Greenland, Scandinavian, and northernmost Asia near North Pole are the biggest. The biggest White tailed eagle was from Greenland.

It says light green is nesting range, blue is wintering range, and dark green is resident all year.
Just like Golden eagle, I am sure this isn't accurate range map.

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Steller's Sea eagle (Haliaeetus pelagicus)
Golden eagle, Bald eagle, and White tailed eagle are roughly equal size. The larger Steller's sea eagle is also live in Korea, but they are coming down Korea in winter since 1950s.
100 years ago was a lot different, because I read BBC news of Steller's sea eagle was actually stayed all year in Korea 100 years ago.
There was very interesting story of Steller's sea eagle in Korea. The Korea once had a black color Steller's sea eagle resident all year in Korea, Haliaeetus pelagicus niger. It was last seen in 1968 and thought to be extinct. However, there was a news in 2001. Both "normal" Steller's sea eagle hatched a black color steller's sea eagle. 
Haliaeetus pelagicus niger was probably polymorphism in steller's sea eagle when they weren't endangered and resident all year in far south Korea.


It is this news of black steller's sea eagle
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_new...036698.stm

This is map of Steller's sea eagle since 1970s.
Green is resident all year, blue is winter range, orange is breeding only, and light purple is other extend range can be discovered.

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Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo)
The eurasian eagle-owl is consider as one of the largest and one of most powerful owl in the world. They are common in northern hemisphere. 

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Blakiston's fish owl (Bubo blakistoni)
The blakiston's fish owl is the definitely the largest owl in the world. But they aren't really powerful as eagle owl in Eurasia, Verreaux's eagle owl in Africa, Great horned owl in Americas. They are very rare bird.

*This image is copyright of its original author

  

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Cinereous vulture (Aegypius monachus)
The Vulture is larger than any other bird of prey like eagle, hawk, buzzard, owl, kite, falcon, and kestrel. The biggest bird of prey is Andean condor, but they aren't actually the same family of "bird of prey." I think New world vulture is still considering as "bird of prey" word anyway since they are eating meat just like old world vulture, eagle, and other bird of prey.
Still, cinereous vulture is considering as the largest true bird of prey and the biggest bird of prey in old world along with Himalayan griffon vulture (Gyps himalayensis). I also know cinereous vulture body size is also increases from west to east. Cinereous vulture in Asia is way bigger than cinereous vulture in Europe or middle east just like golden eagle.  The largest size of this bird is discovering in East Asia and central Asia like in Manchuria, Korea, Siberia, Mongolia and northern China.

The cinereous vulture is coming Korea during winter. People give them food since it is difficult to find carcass in Korea.

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Bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus)
The lammergeier or bearded vulture is the only living bird species that specializes in feeding on marrow. Range map is showing they aren't living in Korea, but they discovered in Korea before 20th century. The last time the bearded vulture was discovered in Korea was 1918 from record. However, bearded vulture discovered in Korea in 2013 along with cinereous vulture as winter migratory bird. Bearded vulture in Asia is also bigger than bearded vulture in Europe, Africa, and Middle East. The bearded vulture in Himalaya, Karakoram, Kunlun Mountains, and Tibet are the larger than those from other mountain ranges.

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3.
The golden eagle and White tailed eagle can be found everywhere in northern hemisphere while larger Steller's sea eagle is only discovering in Northeast Asia. 

Hokkaido island in japan has a really wonderful place to see many steller's sea eagle and white tailed eagle are resting and hunting on iceberg in winter. The blakiston's fish owl is also frequently discovering in these area as well. I am not sure of golden eagle, but larger vultures aren't flying far east in Japan. If you go to north east Asia like Korea, Russia, and northern china. You can see eagles and vultures are searching and gathering foods together. It is very amazing to see them.
I don't know there's any places you can observe birds easily in Russia and China. But I know several places you can see wild birds really well. People also provide foods for vultures. I am posting photos from there.

These are some amazing photos of eagles and vultures I collected from Korean photographers in Korean website since 2010.
More than 60% of birds are young or immature birds are flying to Korea along with adult one.

Stellers sea eagle and white tailed eagle in upstream of Han river, Korea.

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This 1 photo is from hokkaido. The size difference of white tailed eagle and red fox.

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White tailed eagle adn steller's sea eagle are battling each other for an Eurasian teal in Han river, South Korea.

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*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

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*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

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Now, big daddy cinereous vulture along with smaller stellers sea eagle, white tailed eagle, and golden eagle. Majority of these photos are from Chorwon, is a county in Gangwon Province, South Korea. Chorwon is one of the best place to see the cinereous vulture in winter.

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Specimen of eurasian eagle owl, white tailed eagle, and cinereous vulture in Seodaemun Museum of Natural History

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At last, the photo of rare bearded vulture in Goseong and Goseong Unification Observatory in Korea. This photos from 2013. I wish wildlife and animals can recover just like 200 hundred years ago. 

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*This image is copyright of its original author

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