page_title: Tawny eagle
section_title: Habitat
hierarchical_section_title: Tawny eagle / Distribution and habitat / Habitat
caption_attribution_description: Bushveld flora near Doorndraai dam, Naboomspruit, Limpopo.Bushveld
context_page_description: The tawny eagle is a large, long-lived bird of prey. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. Its heavily feathered legs illustrate it to be a member of the subfamily Aquilinae, also known as “booted eagles”. Tawny eagles have an extensive but discontinuous breeding range that constitutes much of the African continent as well as the Indian subcontinent, with rare residency occurring in the southern Middle East. Throughout its range, it favours open dry habitats such as semideserts, deserts steppes, or savanna plains. Despite its preference for areas of aridity, the species seldom occurs in areas where trees are entirely absent. It is a resident breeder which lays one to three eggs in a stick nest mostly commonly in the crown of a tree. The tawny eagle is perhaps the most high opportunistic of all of its taxonomic clan, and often scavenges on carrion or engages in kleptoparasitism towards other carnivorous animals but is also a bold and active predator, often of relatively large and diverse prey. It is estimated that tawny eagles can reach the age of 16 years old. Nonetheless, precipitous declines have been detected throughout the tawny eagle’s range.
context_section_description: Tawny eagles occurs in fairly open country at varied elevations but usually live in drier areas. In West Africa, the species breeds often in relatively moist forest-savanna mosaics but can move into dry woodlands and semi-deserts when not breeding. In Morocco, the species prefers forested areas near mountains with adjacent plains. Elsewhere in Africa, tawny eagles typically inhabit wooded savanna such as dry Acacia savanna and semi-desert to desert areas. However, extreme desert areas, completely lacking in arborescent growth, are avoided nearly as much so as humid tropical rainforests. It also occurs at times in manmade areas such as arable lands, roadsides, dams, farmland, cattle pastures and game areas if feeding opportunities occur in them. In southern Africa, thornveld is often the preferred habitat with the tawny eagles mostly preferring stands of Acacia. Despite similar climates, within the miombo woodland, the tawny eagle tends to be more scarce. In India, similar habitats may largely be used but the tawny eagle may fairly often occur too in the vicinity of villages and cultivations and frequents garbage dumps and slaughterhouses somewhat more so than they do in Africa. In addition to all gradients of arid zones, in India, the tawny eagle frequently is found around thorn forests. Tawny eagles may live from sea level to about 3,000 m (9,800 ft) but tends to prefer somewhat lower elevations. Despite a certain level of aridity expected in tawny eagle habitats, they normally will not nest unless a habitat meets certain demands. The tawny eagle’s presence is predicated on the availability of ephemeral rainfall during the wet season. This reliance on some rainfall is probably key to habitat quality and resulting prey populations to some extent, but also to the availability of nesting sites. The tawny eagle is by and large an obligate tree nester and so areas that become too arid to support tree growth or where trees are overharvested are unlikely to retain the species.
caption: Tawny eagles are often at home in the arid and yet rich bushveld.
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