The Flores Hawk Eagle Nisaetus floris was first treated as a separate species by Gjershaug et al. (2004) because it is morphologically distinct from Changeable Hawk Eagle N.cirrhatus ; it was previously considered to be a subspecies of the latter. It is now an Indonesian endemic only known to occur on Flores, Sumbawa and Lombok as well as on two satellite islands, Satonda near Sumbawa and Rinca near Flores. Komodo was mentioned by Coates & Bishop (1997) as part of the range but no further details were provided. However further confirmation came in November 2011 when a bird was photographed on a tiny island just 800 m from Komodo, perched in mangroves, presumably examining a colony of fruit bats roosting there (Plate 1). At first it was not widely recognised that juvenile and adult plumages of this species are very similar, both being white-headed, unlike Changeable Hawk Eagle in which the initially white- headed juveniles develop brown plumage on their heads as they age. This resulted in the illustrations in several handbooks and field guides being inaccurate (Thiollay 1994, Coates & Bishop 1997). LITTLE-KNOWN ASIAN BIRD Discovery of the Critically Endangered Flores Hawk Eagle Nisaetus floris on Alor island, Indonesia PETER COLLAERTS, ERWIN COLLAERTS, PHILIPPE VERBELEN & COLIN R. TRAINOR This must have caused considerable confusion over identification of the species. In recent years this has been corrected (Gjershaug et al. 2004) and images of Flores Hawk Eagle (Plate 2) have been published on several websites. The Flores Hawk Eagle is found in lowland as well as upland forests to about 1,600 m and over agricultural land in the vicinity of intact or semi- intact forest patches. Based on the extent of suitable habitat and an estimated territory size of about 40 km 2 on Flores the population has been roughly calculated to be fewer than 100 pairs (Gjershaug et al. 2004). Due to ongoing habitat destruction, the species is thought to be in rapid decline and BirdLife International (2013) has therefore ranked the species as Critically Endangered. Plate 1. Flores Hawk Eagle Nisaetus floris roosting in mangroves on an islet close to Komodo where there is a large fruit bat colony—a possible food source for the eagle, 11 November 2011. MARK VAN BUUREN Plate 2. Flores Hawk Eagle; adult and juvenile plumages of Flores Hawk Eagle are very similar. The white head and pale underparts are good identification features. Golo Lusang, Flores, 3 August 2013. JAMES EATON 48 BirdingASIA 19 (2013): 48–51