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Western Banded Snake Eagle | Circaetus cinerascens
Kleine grijze slangenarend | Culebrera Coliblanca
The Western Banded Snake Eagle is a stocky, grey-brown snake eagle of the riverine forests along the large rivers in the north of the region. It sits motionless on a branch above the water or the bank, waiting for snakes and frogs. The broad white band across the middle of the short tail is the best feature.
Voice
A loud, plaintive kok-kok-kok-kok-kok that first rises and then falls away, and a drawn-out, high kooo-aaa; often heard from a hidden perch or during short flights over the forest.
Recording: Magnus Wadstein — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
55–60 cm, wingspan 110–120 cm. Dark grey-brown, with a large round head, big yellow eyes, orange-yellow cere and bare yellow legs. The lower breast and belly show faint, narrow white bars, sometimes barely visible. The tail is short, blackish with one broad white band in the middle and a narrow white tip. In flight the underwing is white, with little barring on the coverts and a dark trailing edge; the broad central tail band catches the eye at once. The sexes are alike. Juveniles are browner, with a whitish head and underparts streaked brown and a less distinct tail band.
Confusion species
Southern Banded Snake Eagle (Circaetus fasciolatus) has a longer tail with three narrow pale bands and a more heavily barred belly; it lives in coastal forest in the east. Lizard Buzzard (Kaupifalco monogrammicus) is smaller and paler grey, with a white throat bearing a black central stripe and a white rump. Brown Snake Eagle is larger and uniformly brown, with three narrow tail bands.
Habitat
Riverine forest along the large rivers, edges of swamps and floodplains, and moist mopane and miombo woodland near water. It hunts snakes, lizards, frogs and sometimes fish from a shaded perch. The nest is placed high in a riverside tree, often among creepers.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
The north of the region: Angola, Zambia, Malawi, the Zambezi valley in Zimbabwe and Mozambique, northern Botswana (Okavango, Chobe, Linyanti) and north-eastern Namibia (Kavango and the Zambezi Region). Absent from South Africa. Beyond the region across the savanna belt from Senegal to Ethiopia and south to Congo and Tanzania.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Scan the riverine forests along the Okavango, Chobe and Zambezi from a boat or river road; the bird often sits low under the canopy above the water and allows close views. In flight the white tail band is the quickest way to separate it from Brown Snake Eagle.
Conservation status
Not threatened, though scarce and local in southern Africa. Degradation of riverine forest by felling, fire and elephants can reduce local populations.
Scientific name
Circaetus cinerascens | Müller, 1851
Müller described the species in 1851 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Circaetus was introduced in 1816 by Vieillot. Circaetus is Greek, from kirkos, a kind of hawk, and aetos 'eagle'. cinerascens is Latin for 'turning ash-grey, greyish', from cinis, 'ash' — for the grey-brown plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Sennar, Sudan.