page_title: Bonelli's eagle
section_title: Nests
hierarchical_section_title: Bonelli's eagle / Breeding / Nests
caption_attribution_description: English&#x3a;&#32; Eggs of Bonelli's eagle Two specimens of the same spawn&#160;; collection of Jacques Perrin de Brichambaut.Français&#x202f;&#x3a;&#32; Œufs de Aigle de Bonelli Deux spécimens de la même ponte&#160;; collection Jacques Perrin de Brichambaut.
context_page_description: The Bonelli's eagle is a large bird of prey. The common name of the bird commemorates the Italian ornithologist and collector Franco Andrea Bonelli. Bonelli is credited with gathering the type specimen, most likely from an exploration of Sardinia. Some antiquated texts also refer to this species as the crestless hawk-eagle. Like all eagles, Bonelli's eagle belongs to the family Accipitridae. Its feathered legs marked it as member of the Aquilinae or booted eagle subfamily. This species breeds from southern Europe, Africa on the montane perimeter of the Sahara Desert and across the Indian Subcontinent to Indonesia. On the great Eurasian continent, this species may be found as far west as Portugal and as far east as southeastern China and Thailand. It is usually a resident breeder. The Bonelli's eagle is often found in hilly or mountainous habitats, with rocky walls or crags, from sea level to 1,500 m. Habitats are often open to wooded land and can occur in arid to semi-moist climate. This eagle, though it can be considered partially opportunistic, is something of a special predator of certain birds and mammals, especially rabbits, galliforms and pigeons.
context_section_description: The breeding season of Bonelli's eagles is from late January/February to July in the western part of the range and November–August/September (peaking December–May) in the Indian subcontinent and Myanmar. Both members of the pair may dwell around the eyrie for up to 2–3 months before breeding. Their nest is a huge structure of branches and sticks, scarcely smaller than those built by eagles twice the size of this species, though rarely as great in depth as some old nests of the larger eagles. Often the nest completely obscures the sitting female from view unless it is seen at the same level or higher than the nest. Nest size can average up to 1.8 m (5.9 ft) across and 60 cm (24 in) deep but with repeated use the nest can range up to 2 m (6.6 ft) in both directions (record sized nest in India was 2.4 m (7.9 ft) in height). Tree nests tend to average larger than those placed on cliff ledges. One nest in the Gir forest was used periodically used over the course of 30 years. While they may line their active nest with greenery, it is less frequent and sparser where present than in many other birds of prey. Nesting locales are often high on cliff ledge or at 5 to 40 m (16 to 131 ft) (usually over 10 m (33 ft)) above the ground in large tree. Very rarely, nests may too be on the perimeter of buildings. The trees selected are often the tallest and/or most densely foliaged in a given stand. Their close cousin, the African hawk-eagle, usually nests on trees and rarely utilizes crags and alternate nesting sites as does the Bonelli's. Historically, throughout their range in western Europe, Bonelli's eagles were considered almost obligate cliff nesters on almost any rocky environment, from precipitous mountain ranges, canyons over river valleys, even down to low rocky rubble to sea cliffs. However, up to 52 tree nests for the species have now been recorded in southwest Portugal. Often the Portuguese nesting eagles used invasive Tasmanian blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus) (44.2% of the time) while a further 21.2% were on cork oak (Quercus suber)  not to mention some that were placed on large shrubs, i.e. strawberry trees (Arbutus unedo). The mean height of Portuguese tree nest was 23.9 m (78 ft). The Portuguese study further found 67.3% of the tree nests to be on hill slopes and 4.5 m (15 ft) average height for lowest branch, both presumably as anti-predator measure. By 2017, the expansion to using tree nests had bolstered the southwest Portugal population considerably. In the 1990s, the first ever tree nest was found in the relative Bonelli's eagle stronghold of Catalonia, Spain, while another singular tree nest was also found in the south of France. In India, Bonelli's eagles seem to readily switch between tree and cliff nests. The eagles of areas such as Maharashtra and the Western Ghats are usually partial to nesting in trees while in the Deccan Peninsula, Indo-Gangetic plain and Himalayan foothills, the eagles alternated between nesting on cliffs and lofty trees including red silk cotton (Bombax ceiba), sacred fig (Ficus religiosa), Javan plum (Syzygium cumini) or Dalbergia ssp. Bonelli's eagles in India may also nest close to human habitations if disturbance is low, such as in Saurashtra and in Himalayan foothills, in the latter often in large chir pine (Pinus roxburghii) near villages. In Pakistan, the species has been known to use seaside cliffs. Also, in the Indian desert zone, Bonelli's eagles are known to use relatively low rocky hills with shallow gradients, making the nest ledges relatively easy to access. On Cyprus, 70% of nests were in Turkish pines (Pinus brutia) at a mean elevation of 625 m (2,051 ft). Often this eagle uses the same nest in successive years but also alternate nest may be used. Often somewhere between 1 and 5 nests may be built by the species on their home range. Like other birds of prey, the presence of alternate nest may be a strategy to cope with ectoparasitic infestations within the nest. The construction of a new nest takes roughly a month's time.
caption: Aquila fasciata - MHNT
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