American Bald Eagle vs Cinereous Antshrike

Haliaeetus leucocephalus compared with Thamnomanes caesius

Key Differences

• American Bald Eagle is Not Evaluated while Cinereous Antshrike is Least Concern.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	American Bald Eagle	Cinereous Antshrike
Kingdom same	Animalia (Animals)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum same	Chordata (Chordates)	Chordata (Chordates)
Class same	Aves (Birds)	Aves (Birds)
Order	Accipitriformes (Hawks & Eagles)	Passeriformes (Songbirds)
Family	Accipitridae (Hawks & Eagles)	Thamnophilidae
Genus	Haliaeetus (Sea Eagles)	Thamnomanes
Species	Haliaeetus leucocephalus	Thamnomanes caesius

Evolutionary Relationship

American Bald Eagle and Cinereous Antshrike share a common ancestor at the Class level: Aves. (Birds)

Conservation Status

American Bald Eagle

NE — Not Evaluated

Population: ~316.7K

Trend: Increasing ↑

Cinereous Antshrike

LC — Least Concern

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	American Bald Eagle	Cinereous Antshrike
Diet	Carnivore	—
Average Lifespan	28 years	—
Average Length	90 cm	—
Average Weight	5.0 kg	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

American Bald Eagle

Habitat

Found across multiple habitat types including tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, and flooded grasslands and savannas, among 10 distinct biome types spanning the Neotropic and Palearctic realms. Populations are also found in montane and highland environments at higher elevations.

Range

Widely distributed across Europe (8 countries), North America (United States), and South America (Ecuador).

Cinereous Antshrike

Habitat

Typically found in various aerial, terrestrial, and aquatic environments.

Range

Distributed across Colombia, Ecuador, Norway, and Venezuela.

American Bald Eagle

The national bird of the United States and a symbol of American conservation success, bald eagles have a wingspan of up to 2.4 meters and inhabit forests and wetlands near open water across North America. Powerful aerial predators and scavengers, they specialize in fish but also take waterfowl and carrion. Nearly extinct by the 1960s due to DDT poisoning and hunting, the bald eagle recovered dramatically following pesticide bans and the Endangered Species Act.

Cinereous Antshrike

The cinereous antshrike (Thamnomanes caesius) is a small, insectivorous bird in the family Thamnophilidae, found across Amazonia and the Orinoco basin in South America. It ranges from Venezuela, Colombia, and the Guianas south through Brazil to Bolivia and Peru. This species is a characteristic member of Amazonian mixed-species foraging flocks, in which it serves as a sentinel, alerting other species to approaching predators while also flushing insects for other flock members. It inhabits the undergrowth and lower to mid strata of terra firme and humid forest, particularly avoiding seasonally flooded várzea. The male is largely gray-blue with a black throat, while the female is brownish with a rufous wash. The cinereous antshrike is classified as Least Concern by the IUCN, with a vast Amazonian range and stable populations in intact forest. As a nuclear species in mixed-species flocks, its presence or absence has cascading effects on the diversity and composition of the flocking community. Deforestation of Amazonian terra firme forest poses the primary long-term threat to this and many co-occurring antbird species. The species is entirely absent from Europe; any database record listing Norway as its range is an artifact of data entry error.

Shared Countries

Both species can be found in 2 countries:

🇪🇨 Ecuador 🇳🇴 Norway