Beaudouin's snake eagle | |
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Perched adult bird near Kampanti, The Gambia. | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Accipitriformes |
Family: | Accipitridae |
Genus: | Circaetus |
Species: | C. beaudouini |
Binomial name | |
Circaetus beaudouini Verreaux & Des Murs, 1862 |
Beaudouin's snake eagle (Circaetus beaudouini) is a species of snake eagle in the Accipitridae family found in the Sahel region of west Africa. It forms a superspecies with the Palearctic short-toed snake eagle Circaetus gallicus and the black-chested snake eagle Circaetus pectoralis. This bird seems to be declining in numbers and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated it as a "vulnerable species".
The bird has a wingspan of 170 cm (67 in). A large snake eagle with grey-brown upperparts, including the head and chest, contrasting with white underparts barred with brown and white vent. It has a black bill and large, bright yellow eyes with long pale grey, unfeathered legs. Juveniles are all dark.
Normally seen perched on a prominent perch such as a telegraph pole or dead tree, as it is a sit and wait hunter, rather than in flight but generally behaviour is poorly known. The diet mainly consists of snakes and other small vertebrates. It breeds in November to March in West Africa in a small stick nest at up to 25 m (82 ft) in the top of a tree. The clutch is usually a single egg. Incubation period is probably around 45 days with a fledging period which may be a further 70 days.
Open woodlands, wooded savanna and cultivation.
In a narrow band from Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Gambia through southern Mali and Burkina Faso, Niger, northern Nigeria and Cameroon, southern Chad, Central African Republic and South Sudan. It has been recorded in Uganda but its status is uncertain in Kenya. There may be some nomadic movements, it appears to move southwards during the dry season and northwards during the rains.