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 Zim, n Botswana and n 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.