THE Highway area is fortunate to have an amazing diversity of raptor species all of which play an important part in maintaining the ecological balance of the area. In this edition, Kloof Conservancy explores one of the less frequently spotted raptors and one of the smallest eagles in the area, the Booted eagle.
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Description
The Booted eagle gets its name from the heavily feathered legs which makes it appear to be wearing ‘boots’! They are the smallest of our eagles at 48-52 cm with a maximum wingspan of 1.35m.
Males and females are similar in colouration with the females being significantly larger in size and weight (710g for males and 975g for females). To complicate identification, they occur in three colour morphs, pale, dark and very rarely, rufus.
Generally, they are brown on the back with creamy-streaked white underparts.
A distinctive feature is that they have ‘white landing light’ shoulder markings and they adopt a heart-shaped position when diving for prey.
Distribution
This is a migrant species in the Highway area and they are present during the summer months. They can be found throughout southern Africa and is quite common in the arid areas of the country and less common on the wetter parts. They are ‘loners’ and most often they are spotted on their own and rarely with a mate.
Habitat
They enjoy mountainous territory or places with cliffs such as those found in Kloof Gorge or the Monteseel area. They will opportunistically hunt in shrublands or woodlands in the vicinity of mountainous or rocky areas.
Predators and threats
Booted Eagles are not considered threatened and have no enemies. The biggest threat comes from human encroachment into their habitats and in Europe they have been affected by wind turbines.
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