Steppe Eagle

Aquila nipalensis

Wingspan

170–200cm

Body length

60–80cm

Weight

2,000–3,000g

Profile

Life expectancy
Clutch size: 1–4 eggs
Global status
Activity
Migration

Identification

A powerful, plain brown eagle with long wings and deeply fingered primaries. The yellow gape extends behind the eye, a reliable feature. Juveniles show a broad white band on the underwings.

Colours

Plumage

Eyes

Legs & feet

Adult

Uniformly dark brown plumage, sometimes with a rusty nape patch. The long yellow gape extends behind the eye; the underwings show finely barred flight feathers with a dark trailing edge.

Behaviour

Outside the breeding season it is a long-distance migrant, gathering in thousands at migration bottlenecks such as Eilat or Batumi. In the wintering grounds many birds congregate at termite swarms and carcasses.

Breeding & rearing

The flat nest is often right on the ground, on low bushes, rocks or pylons. The clutch is incubated for around six weeks; the young fledge after about two months.

Diet

Prey examples

Ground squirrels

Mice

On its breeding grounds it lives mainly on ground squirrels, gerbils and pikas. On migration and in its winter quarters it takes large numbers of grasshoppers and termites as well as carrion; occasionally it kills birds.

Occasional

Grasshoppers

Hunting

The steppe eagle often waits patiently on the ground or on a low perch next to a ground-squirrel burrow and grabs the animal as it emerges. It also scans the steppe in gliding flight and exploits locust swarms and carrion.

Distribution

Range

Central Asia; in winter Africa & South Asia

Status in Germany

Rare visitor

Habitat

Vast steppes, semi-deserts and grassland with ground-squirrel colonies; in its winter quarters also savannahs and farmland. It often nests on the ground or on low bushes, rocks and pylons.

Vast dry grassland with low hills — Steppes