Black Eagle Ictinaetus malaiensis

Black Eagle Ictinaetus malaiensis

Bhutan
April 2008

The Black Eagle is distributed along the Himalayas from northern India and into south-east China, southwards in the Indian sub-continent and into the Malayan Peninsula, Indochina and Indonesia.

It is found in the forests of foothills and mountains from about 300 metres to about 2,700 metres.

It is large and very dark with particularly long primaries. The yellow cere and feet are usually prominent and there is a small but noticeable whitish patch at the base of the outer primaries.

It eats birds, small mammals, lizards and large insects but specialises in preying on birds nests from which it eats eggs, nestlings and even sitting adults. It sometimes lifts the whole nests and eats the contents while in flight.

There is more information on Avibase and a photo of its display on Flickr .

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