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Polemaetus Bellicosus
It was suggested that this was a Martial Eagle, but it doesn't seem to fit the white/pale head. I wondered about the African Crowned Eagle, but again the colours don't fit.
Dry arid with scattered trees - spotted in Samburu Game Reserve in Kenya
Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. Based on these I did a bit more digging, adding 'immature' to my search criteria, and I believe it is an immature Martial Eagle (rather than the African Crowned Eagle). Newman's Birds of Southern Africa proved invaluable in making the distinction - link below. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=yYqLZ...
I agree with ForestDragon, a young Martial Eagle. In addition to being less common, the Crowned Hawk-Eagle (aka "African Crowned Eagle") has a conspicuous yellow gape at all ages, where as the Martial Eagle has a dark gape like this bird. Also, the Crowned Hawk-Eagle has spotted leg feathers, yellow feet, and a longer tail.
Here are a couple of links:
http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/bird....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_Eag...
I believe this is an immature martial eagle. If you do a quick web search to compare the crowned and martial eagles you should be able to find one that looks like yours. Look up immature of each and check out the images. I am on my phone so I can't include a link, sorry.
Def not an osprey...the logs are booted meaning it's a booted eagle of some species like a hawk eagle...this one is an immature African crowned eagle...
Spotted on Aug 22, 2012
Submitted on Sep 2, 2012
+2
