From Opus

2nd Calendar Year
Photo by Sumit
Himalayas, India, 2003

Aquila nipalensis

[edit] Identification

62-74 cm
Brown upperparts and blackish flight feathers and tail, pale throat.
Gape line goes back behind the mid of the eye, often to the rear edge but not always.

[edit] Similar species

In Europe look at Greater Spotted Eagle and Lesser Spotted Eagle; in Africa also Tawny Eagle and Wahlberg's Eagle

[edit] Distribution

Probably second year bird.
Photo by rony_roshtov
Eylat, Israel, April 2006

Eurasia, India and Africa.

Breeds from the northern slopes of the Caucasus to the north of the Caspian Sea in southern Russia and Kazakhstan and east into Central Asia as far as north-west China and Tibet. Probably now extinct in the Ukraine and a former breeder in Moldova, Romania and Turkey. Further south breeds in Pakistan, India and Burma.

Photo by Daniele Occhiato
Raysut, Dhofar, Oman, October 2007

In the northern winter found mainly in Eastern and Southern Africa, small numbers in Iraq and Israel, occasionally Greece and Turkey. On passage occurs in Turkey and the Middle East, Sinai and Egypt but generally rather scarce. Eastern birds winter south to Pakistan, India and southern China.

Annual or almost so in Sweden and Finland, vagrants also recorded west to the Netherlands and France, various European countries and south to Sardinia, Tunisia and Chad.

[edit] Taxonomy

Considered conspecific with Tawny Eagle Aquila rapax by some authors. The subspecies vindhiana of the latter is sometimes included in this species.

[edit] Subspecies^[1]

Subspecies:

• A. n. orientalis:

• Central Eurasia; winters to Middle East, Arabia and southern Africa

• A. n. nipalensis:

• Altai Mountains to Tibet and Manchuria; winters India to south-eastern China

[edit] Habitat

Lowland steppe, semi-desert and foothills

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

The diet consists mostly of carrior, but will kill rodents, small mammals and birds. The diet includes fresh carrion of all kinds, also rodents and other small mammals up to the size of a rabbit, and birds up to the size of partridges. It will also snatch food from other raptors.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. Sinclair et al. 2002. Birds of Southern Africa. Princeton Field Guides, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. ISBN 0-691-09682-1

• List of references

[edit] External Links

• View more images of this species on Orientalbirdimages