 the wahlberg's eagle (hieraaetus wahlbergi, formerly aquila wahlbergi) is a bird of prey. it is about 53â61&nbsp;cm (21â24&nbsp;in) in length with a wingspan of 130â146&nbsp;cm (51â58&nbsp;in) and a body mass of 437â845&nbsp;g (15.25â29.5&nbsp;oz) for males and 670â1400&nbsp;g (1.47â3.08&nbsp;lb) for females on average. like all eagles, it belongs to the family accipitridae. wahlberg's eagle breeds in most of africa south of the sahara. it is a bird of woodland, often near water. it builds a stick nest in the fork of a tree or the crown of a palm tree. the clutch is one or two eggs. wahlberg's eagle is a medium-sized raptor. the plumage is dark brown except for dark streaked grey undersides to the flight feathers, and a barred grey undertail. the head has a small crest, and the legs are yellow. there is a pale variant which is much lighter brown with whitish, rather than grey undertail and flight feather undersides. sexes are similar. in flight, this species is very cross-shaped, with long evenly wide wings, a slim body and long narrow square-ended tail. the wings are held very flat. wahlberg's eagle hunts reptiles, small mammals and birds. the call is a whistled kleeah-kleeah-kleeah. this bird is named after the swedish naturalist johan august wahlberg. ==identification== the large brown eagles are generally a tricky group to identify, but distinctive features of wahlberg's eagle include: round nostrils which separates it from tawny and steppe eagles, although the two spotted eagles also have round nostrils; some form of a crest is usually visible; the gape only extends at maximum to the middle of the eye, whereas in lesser spotted eagle, it extends to the back of the eye. there are both light and dark phases of this species. ==taxonomy==  studies of marker gene sequences (published 2004â2005) found wahlberg's eagle belonged to a clade containing hieraaetus pennatus, h. morphnoides, h. ayeresii, and h. (m.) weiskei. since then, many taxonomic checklists changed from aquila wahlbergi to hieraaetus wahlbergi. however, the african bird club (as of the 2012 checklist) and the second southern african bir
African_birds_of_prey Aquila_(genus) Birds_of_Cameroon Eagles Hieraaetus IUCN_Red_List_least_concern_species