Congo Serpent Eagle

ID tip

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Congo Serpent Eagle

One bar for each month. Filled bars are the 9 months with records; pale bars are months with none. The wide bar is September, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Congo Serpent Eagle

The map shades 124 countries with regular records, and 17 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 Finland, Norway, Afghanistan, Falkland Islands, AX, Burundi, Ecuador, ZZ, Faroe Islands, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Vietnam, Australia, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Lesotho.

About the Congo Serpent Eagle

The Congo serpent eagle is a species of bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. This species is distributed across the African tropical rainforest, including upper and lower Guinean forests. This serpent eagle specializes in hunting in these forests' dark understories. It has two subspecies, the nominate subspecies Circaetus spectabilis spectabilis and Circaetus spectabilis batesi. This hawk is a medium-sized bird with distinctive short, rounded wings and a long, rounded tail. It is varying shades of brown on its back and has a slight crest. Its breast is white with variable amounts of a rufous wash and, in the nominate subspecies, is covered in round, blackish spots.

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

Easily confused with

Beaudouin's Snake EagleCircaetus beaudouiniThe bird has a wingspan of 170 cm (67 in). Southern Banded Snake EagleCircaetus fasciolatusThe southern banded snake eagle is a rather small, stocky snake eagle with a large, rounded head which has a hooded beak. Western Banded Snake EagleCircaetus cinerascensIt has a total length of 50-58 cm (19 to 22 in) and a wingspan of 120-134 cm (3 ft 11 in to 4 ft 4 in)