Bateleur Beautiful...
Friday, May 6, 2011 at 06:43PM As most of you will know, the Bateleur Eagle is one of Africa's most distinctive, eye-catching raptors...a rather clumsy, awkward bird when perched but the most articulate acrobat of the skies as soon as it takes to the air, a hunter and scavenger of breath-taking beauty.
The environment around Kulafumbi seems to suit Bateleur Eagles very well, for they breed successfully and frequently in this area. Opposite the house, we have a resident white-backed male (the white back is a morph, easily distinguished from the usual chestnut-brown-backed birds) whose nest is across the river from us and out of sight, while not far up the road another pair has a nest, from where we have seen many a chick come and go.
Last year's chick was rather a timid one, spending a long time "glued" to the nest tree before daring to finally find his own wings and his own airspace.
Here he is back in October 2010, still on the nest (and I apologise for the dull grey light):
Still sticking around... in March this year, on another grey day, the parents persevere in encouraging their anxious progeny to take flight:
Finally free to roost in their nest themselves (before the coming of the next new arrival), each morning you can find the fine-looking Bateleur pair here, and watch them as they take off for another day's foraging on the wing.
Bateleurs, like other birds, have a third eyelid, which moves horizontally across the eye to clean and moisten it (serving the same purpose as our eyelids when we blink). It's also called a nictitating membrane, and can clearly be seen here:
No matter how beautiful you are, there always comes a time when you've got to get up and get going...
Off to please the skies with his glorious flight, the male Bateleur takes to the wing...you can tell he's the male because of the broad black band on the underside of his wings - the female only has a narrow black band. She already flew the nest this morning, shortly after my arrival.
Reader Comments (2)
great photos as usual Tanya,love raptors and tsavo has such a great variety,couldn't believe what we saw when we where over there and can't wait to get back.
Thank you, Peter. Yes indeed, Tsavo is one of the best places in the world for raptors.