Black-chested Snake Eagle

Circaetus pectoralis

Other Names

  Black-chested Harrier-Eagle, Black-breasted Snake Eagle   Circaète à poitrine noire   Schwarzbrust-Schlanangenadler   Culebra Pechinegra   Svartbröstad ormörn   Schwarzbrust-Schlangenadler   Biancone pettonero

World: E Sudan and Ethiopia and then S through South Africa.

Kenya: Uncommon yet widespread on lightly wooded plains and in more open country. Absent or scarce in the north-western regions and in the arid NE.

This species is sometimes considered to be a subspecies of the Short-toed Snake Eagle (Circaetus gallicus). Although its diet is mainly snakes and lizards (as with other Snake Eagles) it has a rather more diverse diet which includes small mammals, amphibia and arthropods, they are even known to take bats and birds.