Brown Snake Eagle

Mono - toed eagle, Akagera National Park, Rwanda

The Mono - toed Eagle ( Circaetus cinereus ) is a bird of prey from the kind of short-toed eagle ( Circaetus ) within the Accipitridae family ( Accipitridae ).

Features

With a body length of up to 73 cm and a wingspan of up to 170 cm of single-color short-toed eagle is a fairly large bird of prey. He reaches a weight of 2.5 kg. The plumage is dark brown in color. The featherless legs are of a pale color. The iris of the eye is bright yellow. On the top and the underside of the tail itself shows an indistinct, triple, bright banding. The tips of the tail feathers are narrow pale colored.

Way of life

Although the single-color snake eagle sometimes, like other short-toed eagle, from the flight prey instead, he preferred for stand hunting from trees or hills. The prey is swallowed usually on the ground and only very rarely, as with other larger snake eagles in flight. The prey consists mainly of snakes. In addition, he also suggests lizards, chameleons and other lizards, in East Africa also guinea fowl or chicken occasionally.

Distribution and habitat

The Mono - toed eagle is afrotropisch Saharan in almost all countries to the east of South Africa before. It is found in open woodlands and savannah with trees and dry thorn bush landscapes.

Endangering

Due to the very large distribution area and the expected stable population, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources ( IUCN) classifies the monochrome snake eagle as not threatened (Least Concern LC).

Breeding biology

The bird of prey is building quite small nests of thin branches, 60-70 cm in diameter and 15-30 cm deep. The nests in 3.5 to 12.0 m height are lined with green leaves. The clutch is incubated 48-50 days.