Belongs within: Accipitridae.
Contains: Aquila.
The Aquilinae, booted eagles, are a cosmopolitan group of large eagles characterised by feathered tarsi (Lerner & Mindell 2005). Phylogenetic analyses place the tropical, crested hawk-eagles of genera such as Stephanoaetus, Nisaetus and Spizaetus as a paraphyletic grade at the base of the subfamily (Catanach et al. 2025).
<==AquilinaeLM05
|--+--Stephanoaetus coronatus (Linnaeus 1766)CHP25 [=Falco coronatusM-PG70]
| `--Lophotriorchis kieneriiBKB15 [=Hieraaetus kieneriiLM05]
`--+--NisaetusCHP25
| |--+--N. lanceolatusBKB15 [=Spizaetus lanceolatusLM05]
| | `--+--N. pinskeriCHP25
| | `--+--N. philippensisBKB15
| | `--+--N. cirrhatusBKB15 [=Spizaetus cirrhatusLM05]
| | | |--N. c. cirrhatusLM05
| | | `--'Spizaetus’ c. lineatusLM05
| | `--N. florisCHP25
| `--+--N. nanusBKB15 [=Spizaetus nanusLM05]
| `--+--N. kelaartiCHP25
| `--+--N. nipalensisBKB15 [=Spizaetus nipalensisLM05]
| | |--N. n. nipalensisI92
| | `--'Spizaetus’ n. orientalis Temminck & Schlegel 1844I92
| `--+--N. albonigerBKB15 [=Spizaetus albonigerLM05]
| `--N. bartelsiJT12
`--+--Spizaetus Vieillot 1816BKB15, B94 [Spizaetinae]
| | i. s.: S. bellicosusFP64
| | S. coronatusWH02
| | S. grinnelliWH02
| |--S. tyrannusBKB15
| | |--S. t. tyrannusE52
| | `--S. t. serusE52
| `--+--S. melanoleucusBKB15 [=Spizastur melanoleucusLM05]
| `--+--S. isidori (Des Murs 1845)BKB15, CHP25 [=Oroaetus isidoriLM05]
| `--S. ornatusBKB15
| |--S. o. ornatusE52
| `--S. o. vicariusE52
`--+--Polemaetus Heine 1890BKB15, M02
| `--P. bellicosus (Daudin 1800) [=Falco bellicosus]M-PG70
`--+--+--Lophaetus occipitalis (Daudin 1800)BKB15, CHP25 [=Falco occipitalisM-PG70, Lophoaetus occipitalisM-PG70]
| `--+--Ictinaetus malaiensisBKB15, AP21
| `--ClangaCHP25
| |--C. hastataCHP25 [=Aquila pomarina hastataLM05]
| `--+--C. clangaCHP25 [=Aquila clangaBKB15]
| `--C. pomarina (Brehm 1831)CHP25, M-PG70 [=Aquila pomarinaBKB15]
`--+--AquilaBKB15
`--Hieraaetus Kaup 1844BKB15, CC10 [incl. Harpagornis Haast 1872CC10]
| i. s.: H. dubius (Smith 1830) [=Morphnus dubius]M-PG70
| H. edwardsi (Sharpe 1899) (see below for synonymy)M02
|--H. wahlbergi (Sundevall 1851)BKB15, M-PG70 [=Aquila wahlbergiJT12, Spizaetus wahlbergiLM05]
`--+--H. ayresiiBKB15
`--+--H. weiskeiCHP25 [=H. morphnoides weiskeiLM05]
`--+--*H. pennatus (Gmelin 1788)CC10, BKB15, CC10 (see below for synonymy)
`--+--H. moorei (Haast 1872)CHP25, CC10 (see below for synonymy)
`--H. morphnoides (Gould 1840)CHP25, WS48 (see below for synonymy)
Hieraaetus edwardsi (Sharpe 1899) [=Eutolmaetus edwardsi, Aquila edwardsi, Nisaetus edwardsi, Aquila minuta Milne-Edwards 1871 non Brehm 1831]M02
Hieraaetus moorei (Haast 1872)CHP25, CC10 [=*Harpagornis mooreiCC10, Aquila mooreiCC10; incl. Ha. assimilis Haast 1874CC10]
Hieraaetus morphnoides (Gould 1840)CHP25, WS48 [=Aquila morphnoidesWS48; incl. A. morphnoides coongani Mathews 1912WS48]
*Hieraaetus pennatus (Gmelin 1788)CC10, BKB15, CC10 [=Falco pennatusCC10, Aquila pennataCC10; incl. A. minuta Brehm 1831M02]
*Type species of generic name indicated
References
[AP21] Arlott, N., & B. van Perlo. 2021. Collins Birds of the World. William Collins.
[B94] Bock, W. J. 1994. History and nomenclature of avian family-group names. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 222: 1–281.
[BKB15] Burleigh, J. G., R. T. Kimball & E. L. Braun. 2015. Building the avian tree of life using a large-scale, sparse supermatrix. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 84: 53–63.
[CHP25] Catanach, T. A., M. R. Halley & S. Pirro. 2025. Enigmas no longer: using ultraconserved elements to place several unusual hawk taxa and address the non-monophyly of the genus Accipiter (Accipitriformes: Accipitridae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 144 (2): blae028.
[CC10] Checklist Committee (OSNZ). 2010. Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands, and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica 4th ed. Ornithological Society of New Zealand and Te Papa Press: Wellington.
[E52] Eisenmann, E. 1952. Annotated list of birds of Barro Colorado Island, Panama Canal Zone. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 117 (5): 1–62.
[FP64] Fisher, J., & R. T. Peterson. 1964. The World of Birds: A comprehensive guide to general ornithology. Macdonald: London.
[I92] Iwahashi, J. (ed.) 1992. Reddo Deeta Animaruzu: a pictorial of Japanese fauna facing extinction. JICC: Tokyo.
[JT12] Jetz, W., G. H. Thomas, J. B. Joy, K. Hartmann & A. Ø. Mooers. 2012. The global diversity of birds in space and time. Nature 491: 444–448.
[LM05] Lerner, H. R. L., & D. P. Mindell. 2005. Phylogeny of eagles, Old World vultures, and other Accipitridae based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 37: 327–346.
[M-PG70] Mackworth-Praed, C. W., & C. H. B. Grant. 1970. African Handbook of Birds ser. 3 vol. 1. Birds of West Central and Western Africa. Longman: London.
[M02] Mlíkovský, J. 2002. Cenozoic Birds of the World. Part 1: Europe. Ninox Press: Praha.
[WS48] Whittell, H. M., & D. L. Serventy. 1948. A systematic list of the birds of Western Australia. Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery of Western Australia, Special Publication 1: 1–126.
[WH02] Worthy, T. H., & R. N. Holdaway. 2002. The Lost World of the Moa: Prehistoric life of New Zealand. Indiana University Press: Bloomington (Indiana).