Eurasian eagle-owl
The Eurasian eagle-owl is a member of the genus "Bubo", which may include either 22 or 25 extant species. Almost all the larger owl species in the world today are included in "Bubo". Based on an extensive fossil record and a central distribution of extant species on that continent, the "Bubo" appears to have evolved into existence in Africa, although early radiations seem to branch from southern Asia as well. Two genera belonging to the scops owls complex, the giant scops owls ("Otus gurneyi") found in Asia and the "Ptilopsis" or the white-faced scops owl found in Africa, although firmly ensconced in the scops owl group, appear to share some characteristics with the eagle-owls. The "Strix" is also related to the "Bubo" and is considered a "sister complex", with the "Pulsatrix" possibly being intermediate between the two. The Eurasian eagle-owl appears to represent an expansion of the genus "Bubo" into the Eurasian continent. A few of the other species of "Bubo" seem to have been derived from the Eurasian eagle-owl, making it a "paraspecies", or they at least share a relatively recent common ancestor. The Pharaoh eagle-owl, distributed in the Arabian Peninsula and sections of the Sahara Desert through North Africa where rocky outcrops are found, was until recently considered a subspecies of the Eurasian eagle-owl. It appears that the Pharaoh eagle-owl differs about 3.8% in mitochondrial DNA from the Eurasian eagle-owl, well past the minimum genetic difference to differentiate species of 1.5%. Smaller and paler than Eurasian eagle-owls, the Pharaoh can also be considered a distinct species largely due to its higher pitched and more descending call and the observation that Eurasian eagle-owls formerly found in Morocco ("B. b. hispanus") apparently did not breed with the co-existing Pharaoh eagle-owls. On the contrary, the race still found together with the Pharaoh eagle-owl in the wild ("B. b. interpositus") in the central Middle East has been found to interbreed in the wild with the Pharaoh eagle-owl, although genetical materials have indicated "interpositus" may itself be a distinct species from the Eurasian eagle-owl, as it differs from the nominate subspecies of the Eurasian eagle-owl by 2.8% in mitochondrial DNA. The Indian eagle-owl was also considered a subspecies of Eurasian eagle-owl until recently, but its smaller size, distinct voice (more clipped and high-pitched than Eurasians), and the fact that it is largely allopatric in distribution (filling out the Indian subcontinent) with other Eurasian eagle-owl races has led to it being considered a distinct species. The mitochondrial DNA of the Indian species also appears considerably distinct from the Eurasian species. The Cape eagle-owl ("B. capensis") appears to represent a return of this genetic line back into the African continent, where it leads a lifestyle similar to northern eagle-owls albeit far to the south. Another offshoot of the northern "Bubo" group is the snowy owl. It appears to have separated from other "Bubo" at least 4 million years ago.
White-tailed eagle
This eagle breeds in northern Europe and northern Asia. Their European range extends to as far west as southeastern Greenland, northern and eastern Iceland, and the reintroduced populations in some areas of Ireland and Scotland, particularly conserved coastal spots. In mainland Europe, often isolated outposts remain in coastal and western Norway (broadly), northern and southwestern Finland, eastern Sweden, southern Denmark (and some spots in the north), islands of the Baltic Sea, western Austria, northeastern Germany, northern and eastern Poland, the Czech Republic, much of the east Baltic countries, the non-montane areas of the Ukraine, eastern Slovenia, central and southern Hungary (and adjacent northeastern Croatia), very sporadically in Greece, the Danube sections of Romania and Bulgaria to the Black Sea and western and eastern Moldova. In Asia Minor, it only remains as a breeder in very sparse and small pockets of Turkey and Georgia, taken as a region there is likely to be fewer than 30 breeding pairs in this region. In the Middle East, the white-tailed eagle may still be found breeding only along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea in northern Iran and southwestern Turkmenistan. Discontinuously, they are found as residents in Kazakhstan where they live in a long strip of the southern part of the country starting at the Aral Sea and the northwestern portion (but not, as far as is known, breeding in the Kazakh part of the Caspian Sea coast). The only country in which the white-tailed eagle is found over a continuous and extremely large area is Russia. The species is found very broadly everywhere in Russia from European Russia in the west to the Bering Sea in the east, only being fully absent as a nester as far as is known from the high Arctic regions and a section bordering westernmost Kazakhstan, although it breeds to south of this in the Russian coastal part of the Caspian Sea. Their northern limits occur in Russia to the Ob river to 70 degrees north at the mouth of the Yenisei River and on the Gydan and Yamal Peninsulas, to the Kolyma, Indigirka and Lena rivers to above 72 degrees north, even to 75 degrees north on the Taymyr Peninsula. They are said to be common around the White Sea, reportedly even the most abundant bird of prey locally and found both on coasts and inland lakes, although breeding rates are low due to the frigid weather. From Russia, breeding populations spill somewhat into northernmost Mongolia, extreme northwestern China and northern North Korea. The white-tailed eagle also breeds on Sakhalin Island, the Kuril Islands and Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan.