page_title: Black-chested snake eagle
section_title: Identification
hierarchical_section_title: Black-chested snake eagle / Identification
caption_attribution_description: English: Black-chested Snake Eagle Circaetus pectoralis in flight (with a snake), Awash National Park, Ethiopia
context_page_description: The black-chested snake eagle or black-breasted snake eagle is a large African bird of prey of the family Accipitridae. It resembles other snake eagles and was formerly considered conspecific with the short-toed and Beaudouin's snake eagles, to which it is closely related.
context_section_description: The main identifying character of this bird is its dark brown-black head and chest, to which it owes its name. It is distinguished from the short-toed and Beaudouin's snake eagles by its uniform white lower underparts, in contrast to the darkly blotched belly of the short-toed snake eagle and narrowly barred lower underparts of the Beaudouin's. In flight, the dark head and chest contrast with the lower underparts and underwings, which are both white except for three narrow black terminal bars on the underwings. The sexes are alike in plumage, although the female is appreciably larger. In the field the species may also be confused with the martial eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus); however, it is distinguished from this species by its smaller size, unmarked (not spotted) breast, and white (not brown-black) underwings. The eye is bright yellow-orange in colour, the bill horn-coloured and the legs pale grey and unfeathered below the thigh, as in other snake eagles.
  The call is a whistled kwo kwo kwo kweeoo.
caption: Flying with a snake in its beak, Awash National Park, Ethiopia
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