Cassin's Hawk-Eagle

Aquila africana

Least Concern · IUCN Red List

LCLeast ConcernVertebratesWoodlandPlatform nestLarge · 1.0 kg

ID tip

The adult Cassin's hawk-eagle appears as a small eagle, with short rounded wings and a long rounded tail. It has dark brown upperparts, with white spots and a brown tail with three black bars and a broad black subterminal band. The tarsi are white with black streaks, and the underparts are all white or white with black blotches along the sides of the lower breast. It has yellowish-brown eyes, pale yellow ceres and feet and a black bill. Immature and juvenile plumage is strikingly different from that of adults.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Cassin's Hawk-Eagle

One bar for each month, and every month is filled: this bird is recorded here in all twelve. The wide bar is November, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Cassin's Hawk-Eagle

Regular rangeRare visitor

The map shades 15 countries with regular records, and 3 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

Recorded as a rare visitor in Burundi, Central African Republic, Togo.

About the Cassin's Hawk-Eagle

Cassin's hawk-eagle or Cassin's eagle, is a relatively small eagle in the family Accipitridae. Its feathered legs mark it as member of the Aquilinae or booted eagle subfamily. A forest-dependent species, it occurs in primary rainforests across western, central and (marginally) eastern Africa where it preys on birds and tree squirrels. It was named after John Cassin who first described it in 1865. Due to widespread habitat destruction, its populations are steadily declining but have not yet warranted upgrading its status from Least Concern.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

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