michael joncas wrote the song on eagle's wings.
michael joncas wrote the song on eagle's wings.
who wrote the song on eagle's wings?
michael joncas
on eagle's wings









































"on eagle's wings" is a devotional song composed by michael joncas. its words are based on psalm 91, book of exodus 19, and gospel of matthew 13. joncas wrote the piece in either 1976 or 1979. it was recorded in 1979, with douglas hall as producer, published by north american liturgy resources and later purchased by new dawn music, a subsidiary of oregon catholic press. it has become popular as a contemplative song at catholic masses as well as at mainline protestant services.
on eagle's wings
while adult ornate hawk-eagles are obviously distinctly marked from most other raptors, one species strikingly resembles this predator, the juvenile of the gray-bellied hawk ("accipiter poliogaster") which is extremely different looking from the respective plumage of adults. while not definitely proven, this is quite possibly a case of mimicry, as is known in other raptor assemblages wherein a less powerful species (the hawk) mimics a more powerful species (the hawk-eagle) presumably to mitigate potential predatory attacks. distant gray-bellied hawks are best told apart by their very different proportions and build both in flight and perched. the gray-bellied hawks are typical of an "accipiter", having broader and much shorter wings, relatively more elongated tail and signature flap-flap-glide flight style. although the gray-bellied hawk is by a slight margin the largest member of that genus in south america, it is still considerably smaller than the hawk-eagle, averaging about a third smaller in length. at close range, it may noticeably differ, beyond the size discrepancy, by the hawk being crestless and bearing relatively long, featherless and yellow legs. black hawk-eagles are fairly similarly shaped and similarly sized as the ornate hawk-eagle when seen in flight but are slightly larger in appearance, being longer tailed and longer winged. nonetheless, the ornate hawk-eagle usually is slightly heavier on average than the black hawk-eagle and may appear chestier in perched birds than the more gracile black species. confusion with the adult black hawk-eagle is unlikely given that it is always much darker, appear solidly soot colored apart from its heavily barred wings. juveniles and late first years stages of the black hawk-eagle are most likely to be confused in distant flight with perhaps a subadult ornate, however the juvenile black hawk-eagle is always much more heavily barred below with dark cheeks separating the white supericilia and throat. haverschmidt (1968) mentioned a "dark morph" of the ornate hawk-eagle that he said was "nearly impossible" to distinguish from the black hawk-eagle but this is considered most likely to have been a misidentified black hawk-eagle in intermediate plumage. the juvenile ornate hawk-eagle is potentially confusable with the black-and-white hawk-eagle but the latter is smaller with boxier wings, shorter crest, a bold orange cere, a strong black mask and a blacker upper-body with white leading edges. also the black-and-white bears no spots or barring on its wings and has a plain white underbody. the black-and-white species is more similar to an "accipiter" in proportions than the ornate species, having relatively less expansive wings and somewhat more elongated looking tail. juveniles are told from the similar juvenile black-and-chestnut eagle by their smaller size and by having more extensive spots and barring on the under wing (giving the differences in altitudinal range, overlap in distribution is likely very minimal). juvenile hook-billed kite ("chondrohierax uncinatus") are also potentially confusable with juvenile ornates but the kite is much smaller and more dumpily built with more paddle-shaped wings, a squarer tail, with clearer bars on remiges and rectrices and bare tarsi. another kite, the gray-headed kite ("leptodon cayanensis") can be considered similar in plumage in its adult plumage to the juvenile ornate but it is rather smaller with very different shape in all respects (especially in its small, pigeon-like head), completely different underwing pattern and unmarked body but for grey crown and nape. pale juvenile crested eagles ("morphnus guianensis") appear much larger and longer tailed than juvenile ornate hawk-eagles with dark grey rather than dark brown backs, unbarred flanks and have a less marked hand in flight contrasting with more boldly barred primary quills. despite the ornate species not infrequently being described as “slim”, in actuality, the much bigger looking crested eagle is much lighter for its size and only averages about 30% heavier than the ornate (i.e. other eagle species around the same total length as the crested eagle weigh about three times as much as the ornate species). despite its somewhat similar plumage and appearance to the crested eagle, the harpy eagle is far more massive than the ornate hawk-eagle (nearly five times heavier on average) and unlikely to be confused with any plumage of the smaller species.
ornate hawk-eagle