THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE WHITE-BELLIED SEA EAGLE (<i>Haliaeetus leucogaster</i>) BASED ON MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Abstract

The white-bellied sea eagle, Haliaeetus leucogaster, is one of the top predators living in the coastal area of Indonesia. This species has the range of distribution in all across Indonesian archipelago. However, this raptor population decreases particularly in the Java southern seas due to illegal hunts and the decreasing quality of their natural habitat. Meanwhile, this species is still poorly studied in Indonesia. This research focuses on the identification of Haliaeetus leucogaster by means of morphometrical analysis in regards to the conservation of this species. The method used in this research is by measuring morphometrical characteristics according to Rahmat (2009) including wing span, body weight, total length, total wing length, wing width, patagial width tail length, tarsus length and depth, talons with claws and without claws, claws, culmen with cere and without cere, culmen height and width, inter-pupil distance, iris color, primairy wing feather number, secondary wing feather number and the number of tail feathers.


Keywords: Haliaeetus leucogaster, morphological characteristics

References
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