Brown Snake Eagle

About the Brown Snake Eagle

The brown snake eagle (Circaetus cinereus) is a fairly large species of bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. It is found in West, East and southern Africa. This species is an almost obligate predator of a variety of snakes. A very solitary bird, the brown snake eagle has a prolonged breeding cycle and raises a single eaglet. Although probably naturally scarce, it is classified as a least concern species as it continues to occur over a very broad range.

This species is distributed widely in Africa. In west Africa, ranges from southeastern Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, eastern and western Guinea, Sierra Leone, the northern, inland parts of Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria as well as inland in Mali and Niger. From there they range across to southern Chad, southern Sudan, South Sudan, inland in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia and central Ethiopia and in southern Somalia through much of Kenya, Uganda and the southern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo down through southern Africa to about half of Namibia, all of Botswana and Zimbabwe and northeastern and eastern South Africa. Although it is not migratory, brown... Wikipedia →