If they formed a family, you could say that eagles and hawks are brothers and hawks, a kind of cousin of both. There are several small differences that separate the two “brothers” on the one hand and the falcons on the other:
• Eye color
Eagles and hawks have yellow or red eyes, while hawks are usually brown.
• Type of wing and flight
Hawks have narrower wings and fly straighter, which allows them to penetrate forests with ease; hawks and eagles have rounded wings and prefer to hover in the air.
• Child
Hawks and eagles have the habit of building their nests, which is not the case with hawks.
• lethal weapon
Falcons prefer to use their beak to annihilate their prey, while hawks and eagles use their sharp claws more.
Much more subtle is the distinction between the two “little brothers”, which for this very reason are classified by specialists within the same family. “Eagles, by definition, are animals of greater size and wingspan, with large claws and a developed face, while hawks are smaller”, says ornithologist Reginaldo José Donatelli, from Unesp in Bauru (SP). In the table below we take a few more pecks at the complicated classification of these birds of prey.
ORDER FALCONIFORMES
It gathers around 300 species of birds of prey of diurnal habits. Among the families into which this order is subdivided are the Accipitridae (eagles and hawks), the Falconidae (hawks and caracaras) and the Pandionidae (fish eagle).
ACCIPITRIDAE FAMILY
It has about 220 species and includes eagles and hawks. Despite the difference in size between these two types of birds, they remain mixed in the other species classification levels (genera or subfamilies)
Some species – Harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja) and American bald eagle (Haliaetus leucocephalus)
PANDIONIDAE FAMILY
The only member of this family is the osprey, which feeds exclusively on fish. To add to the confusion, it is also known as the osprey and some biologists prefer to classify it as a member of the family Accipitridae.
Some species – Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)
FALCONIDAE FAMILY
It groups around 60 species of falcons and caracaras. Caracaras are larger, have more developed wings and also feed on dead animals. Falcons only eat live animals. Both, in general, are smaller than eagles and hawks
Some species – Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) and Caracara (Polyborus plancus)
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