Rarest fish eagle

The rarest species of fish eagle or sea eagle (i.e., belonging to the genus Haliaeetus) is the Madagascan fish eagle Haliaeetus vociferoides, endemic to the island of Madagascar's northwestern coastal strip. Only around 120 pairs are believed to exist in the wild and it has been assigned a categorization of Critically Endangered by the IUCN, which means that this eagle is one of the rarest species of bird of prey alive today.

Several species of raptor currently exist in Madagascar, of which its fish eagle is by far the largest species. However, there was once an even bigger species, the Malagasy crowned eagle Stephanoaetus maheryi, which probably fed upon lemurs but became extinct in around 1500 AD owing to habitat loss and competition for prey with human settlers. There was once an Aquila species of eagle, too, but that is also now extinct. However, the characteristic raptor avoidance behaviour exhibited today by lemurs may have originated in response to these two giant eagles.