The Condor Heroes believe that the friends are familiar with it, in addition to the aunt and Guo'er, the protagonist in this work is the big eagle, and its appearance rate is second only to the two protagonists, but in the work, the big eagle is played by people wearing the clothes of the carving, its height is similar to Yang Guo, and the body size is relatively close. So, in reality, is there such a big eagle? We look for existing and extinct eagles.
What is a carving?
Eagles, eagles, vultures, and falcons are all names we often refer to as eagles of prey, but most people are a bit vague about how exactly they are distinguished. In fact, it is no wonder, because their classification itself has been changed several times, of which falcons are easier to distinguish, they are the collective name of birds of prey under the family Falconidae, and the world's fastest flying bird, the Peregrine Falcon, is the bird under the family.
However, the original falcons and eagles, vultures and other families were placed under the order Falcons, but in 2008, scientists conducted a systematic genetic analysis of birds under the order Falcons, and found that the falcons are genetically the most different from birds of other families, so there is only one family of falcons left under the order Falcons, and the birds under this family are relatively small.
After other families were kicked out of the order Falcons, the birds under the American vulture family were also very different from birds in several other families, so they were promoted from the family to the order, at this time the original Hayabusa was divided into three, in addition to retaining the order Falcons, eagles and American vultures appeared.
This has led to three families under the order Eagles: Eagles, Ospreys (ospreys) and snakes, of which there is only one bird in the Osprey family, and there is only one bird in the Osprey family (that is, the big bird that kicked the black mamba snake in Africa), which is the classification of today's eagle birds of prey, and the eagle we are talking about is under the eagle order.
secretary bird
The definition of eagle is actually a little vague, because some ornithologists believe that in the order of eagles, large eagles are eagles, but some people think that eagles should be the collective name of all birds of prey under the eagle subfamily of eagles, and the biggest difference between it and other eagles is that the tarsal plantar of the eagle (from the lower part of the leg to the toe) is covered with feathers, while other eagles do not have this feature.
However, we are looking for a large eagle, so we may as well use the large birds of prey under the eagle order as a standard to find out if there are birds of prey that meet the size of the large eagle.
The largest sculpture in existence
There are two kinds of birds that can compete for the largest eagle in the existing eagle order: ape eagle and horned eagle, so we may wish to briefly understand these two large eagles.
They are the world's largest and rarest large eagles, mainly distributed in the tropical rainforest of Mindanao in the Philippines, with a number of less than 1,000 birds, and are the national bird of the Philippines.
As a bird of prey, the main prey of ape eagles is small and medium-sized mammals, the largest proportion of which is monkeys in the rainforest.
As one of the largest eagles in existence, their average body length is about 1 meter, the average wingspan is about 2.5 meters, the average height of standing is about 90 centimeters, and the average weight is 6.5 kilograms.
Horned eagles, commonly known as American horn eagles, are widely distributed on the American continent (which have now disappeared from many areas) and are Panama's national bird. One of the most interesting things about horn carvings is that when they stand on a branch, the front looks like a person standing there from a distance.
After all, the horned eagle has an average length of 95 cm large eagle, its average wingspan is about 2 meters, the male and female body size difference is large, the average weight of males is about 4.5 kg, while the average weight of females is about 7.5 kg, the overall average weight is 6 kg. From the data, it is slightly smaller than the ape eagle.
However, from the image point of view, it is more like the big eagle in the condor heroes, and like the ape eagle, the horned eagle also likes to eat primates, such as slow lorises and spider monkeys are its main prey. (The picture below shows the horned eagle hunting monkeys, but many articles on the Internet describe it as an ape-eating eagle)
Therefore, if the big eagle in the condor heroes finds a closer one among the existing eagles, it is the horn eagle, but in the film and television works, the condor is about the same height as Yang Guo, so neither the ape eagle nor the horned eagle does not meet this characteristic.
The largest eagle that has become extinct?
Since the existing eagles are not tall enough, let's take a look at the large eagles that have disappeared into the long river of history. Although birds have appeared in the dinosaur period, the real size of the giant began after the extinction of dinosaurs, such as the mulberry pseudotooth bird living about 25 million years ago, its wingspan can reach 7.4 meters, but the mulberry pseudotooth bird belongs to the order of toothed birds, and the gap with the eagle is too large, and even if it has a wingspan of more than seven meters, its height is less than 1.5 meters.
About 9 million years ago, the largest eagle bird of prey appeared, it was the Argentine giant eagle, which had a wingspan of more than 7 meters, weighed an average of about 70 kilograms, and reached a height of 2 meters. From the point of view of body shape, it is somewhat in line with the image of the eagle, but the scientific name of the Argentine giant eagle is the Argentine vulture, which is an extinct bird under the order of the American vulture, not a member of the eagle order, so it is not a large eagle, at most a large vulture.
After the extinction of the Argentine giant eagle, the real big eagle that appeared was the Haast eagle (and the Andean condor, but it is also a member of the American vulture), also known as the Haast eagle, which is a member of the eagle subfamily of the eagle family, which is the largest eagle that has ever appeared on Earth.
From the fossils and skeletons found, the adult Haast eagle has a maximum wingspan of more than 3 meters, a body length of up to 1.4 meters, a standing height of more than 1 meter, and an average weight of about 10 kilograms, much larger than any existing eagle.
summary
The Condor Heroes have been remade many times, and the image of the big eagle is different each time, for example, in Chen Xiao's version, the big eagle is a vulture with no feathers on its neck, and in Andy Lau's version, it is a bit like a golden eagle without a yellow beak, so we can't judge what kind of eagle it is.
However, from the point of view of body shape, the Haast eagle and the horned eagle that meet the description of the big eagle are the Haast eagle, of which the Haast eagle is the height match, and the horn eagle is the image match.