steppe eagle (Aquila nipalensis)
steppe eagle ( Aquila nipalensis ) Mussoorie Uttarakhand November 20 20 Nikon Gears This is a large bird of prey . Like all eagles , it belongs to the family Accipitridae . [3] The steppe eagle's well-feathered legs illustrate it to be a member of the subfamily Aquilinae , also known as the "booted eagles". This species was once considered to be closely related to the non-migratory tawny eagle ( Aquila rapax ) and the two forms have previously been treated as conspecific . They were split based on pronounced differences in morphology and anatomy; two molecular studies, each based on a very small number of genes, indicate that the species are distinct but disagree over how closely related they are.