Western Banded Snake-eagle Circaetus cinerascens
(aka Banded Snake-eagle, Smaller Banded Snake Eagle)
Western Banded Snake-eagle, Lake Awassa, Ethiopia, January 2016 - click for larger image

Lake Awassa, Ethiopia
January 2016

The Western Banded Snake-eagle is distributed in much of equatorial Africa. See the distribution map at Birdlife International. It is found in riverine forest and other forest types close to water as well as wetter wooded savanna.

It is a largely brown eagle with fine white often indistinct bars on the belly and flanks. The tail is short with a broad central white band. The eyes are yellow and the legs are paler.

It feeds mainly on small snakes but also lizards, rodents, amphibians, insects, etc.. It perches for long periods but then hunts mainly on the ground.

Previous Page Back to Index Next Page

If you do not see a menu on the left, you may have arrived at this page from another site. Please click Home to get to my main page.

Valid HTML 4.0 Transitional

Fatbirder's Top 1000 Birding Websites