Juvenile bateleur eagles are primarily brown, have a longer tail and wing feathers for flight control, and a duller, greenish-blue cere and feet compared to adults. They gradually transition to the adult plumage over seven to eight years, developing a shorter tail and more defined body colors through molting. They are often mistaken for other birds, such as the brown snake eagle, due to their brown coloration.
Physical characteristics
Plumage: Brown and dull, with some lighter edging on the feathers. The head is paler and tawnier.
Tail and wings: Possess longer tail and wing feathers than adults, which provide more stability and control during flight. The tail gets shorter with each molt as the bird matures.
Bare parts: The cere (the fleshy, waxy part on top of the beak) and feet are a pale grey-blue to greenish-blue color.
Development and behavior
Maturation: It takes approximately 7 to 8 years for a juvenile to reach full adult plumage.
Flight: The longer feathers of juveniles give them better control as they learn to fly.
Adult supervision: Young are fed by both parents for about 100 days after fledging and remain dependent for up to four months.
Mobility: Juveniles become highly mobile and nomadic, and are sometimes driven away from the breeding territory by adult eagles.
Identification: Due to their dull brown color and longer tail, juveniles are often mistaken for a brown snake eagle.
The bateleur (/ˌbætəˈlɜːr, ˈbætəlɜːr/; Terathopius ecaudatus), also known as the bateleur eagle, is a medium-sized eagle in the family Accipitridae. It is often considered a relative of the snake eagles and, like them, it is classified within the subfamily Circaetinae. It is the only member of the genus Terathopius and may be the origin of the "Zimbabwe Bird", the national emblem of Zimbabwe. Adult bateleurs are generally black in colour with a chestnut colour on the mantle as well as also on the rump and tail. Adults also have gray patches about the leading edges of the wings (extending to the secondaries in females) with bright red on their cere and their feet.
Adults also show white greater coverts, contrasting with black remiges in males, gray patches on the underwing primaries and black wingtips. The juvenile bateleur is quite different, being largely drab brown with a bit of paler feather scaling. All bateleurs have extremely large heads for their size, rather small bills, large feet, relatively short legs, long, bow-like wings and uniquely short tails, which are much smaller still on adults compared to juvenile birds.
This species is native to broad areas of Sub-Saharan Africa and scarcely up into Arabia. It is characteristically a bird of somewhat open habitats such as savanna with some trees present and open dry woodland. It is in life history, a rather peculiar bird of prey with a free-wheeling generalist diet that includes much carrion but also tends to hunt a wide range of live prey, including many small to unexpectedly relatively large mammals and reptiles along with generally relatively small birds. Bateleurs are highly aerial birds that spend much time soaring and will frequently fly with exaggerated embellishments, perhaps when excited or angered. They tend to build a relatively small if sturdy stick nest in a large tree and lay only a single egg.
Despite being a rather aggressive bird in other contexts, bateleurs are easily flushed from their own nest, making them exceptionally vulnerable to nest predators, including humans, and nest failures. It may take as long as 7 to 8 years to attain full maturity, perhaps the longest stretch to maturity of any raptor. This species has long been known to be declining rather pronouncedly in overall population and it is mostly confined to protected areas today. Currently the IUCN classifies the bateleur as an Endangered species due primarily to anthropogenic causes such as habitat destruction, pesticide usage and persecution.
