Ayres’s Hawk-Eagle

Hieraaetus ayresii

A: Kleinjagarend
G: Fleckenadler
N: ǂkhari-anxa !khās
Sp: Ntšhumebalabala ye nnyane
Ss: Ntsutjheke e nnyenyane
Tw: Ntsukgweba e nnye
X:
Z: ukhozolumabalabala

BIRD FAMILY
Eagles (True)

SIZE
46-55 cm (L)

HABITAT
Breeding records are scattered but noted in Zimbabwe Botswana and KZN and Northern Pretoria. Frequents well-wooded regions, wooded hillsides and Eucalyptus plantations, occasionally even in rural suburbia. A summer visitor in the south of its range. Hunts mainly birds in flight from a high soaring position stooping down with wings tucked, carving through tree canopy to catch prey.

SPECIES DESCRIPTION
Uncommon resident and summer visitor. A small, rapacious eagle with white underparts either lightly spotted (a) or dark and heavily spotted (b). Forehead may be white or dark, the latter presenting as a cap extending to below the eyes. Leading edge of the wing often unspotted, showing as a white shoulder-patch on the folded wing. Underwings heavily barred. immature much paler with rufous wash on body and upper wing coverts, rufous upper primary and secondary feathers but still heavily barred from below. Easily confused with African Hawk-Eagle and immature with Booted Eagle.