Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Tawny ea­gles occur from Ro­ma­nia east to south­ern Rus­sia and Mon­go­lia, and south through India and much of Africa. (Camp­bell, 1983)

• Biogeographic Regions
• palearctic
  • native
• ethiopian
  • native

Habi­tat

Tawny ea­gles favor arid cli­mates but oc­cupy a wide range of habi­tats in­clud­ing deserts, steppes, open sa­van­nah, open grass­land, moun­tain­ous re­gions, and cul­ti­vated steppes. The tend to avoid dense forests. (Brown, et al., 1982; Bur­ton, 1983; Camp­bell, 1983; Chan­ning, 2006)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• desert or dune
• savanna or grassland
• mountains

• Other Habitat Features
• agricultural

• Range elevation

  600 to 4500 m

  1968.50 to 14763.78 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Aquila rapax plumage varies from very dark brown to light brown shades with black­ish flight feath­ers and tail, light col­ored stripes or bars on the wings, and a pale lower back. Tawny ea­gles with darker shades of brown gen­er­ally have tawny col­oration on the body, dis­tin­guish­ing them from sim­i­lar species of ea­gles, which lack any tawny col­oration. The eyes are brown and the beak is yel­low with a dark tip. Fe­males are typ­i­cally larger than males, oth­er­wise the sexes are sim­i­lar. Im­ma­ture tawny ea­gles are paler and more streaked than are adults, some­times "blonde" (white). Tawny ea­gles were thought to be syn­ony­mous with steppe ea­gles (Aquila ni­palen­sis). Steppe ea­gles are larger than tawny ea­gles (up to twice the size in weight) and are darker in color. (Brown, 1977; Brown, et al., 1982; Camp­bell, 1983; Clancey, 1964; Maclean, 1988)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• female larger

• Range mass

  1950 to 2500 g

  68.72 to 88.11 oz

• Range length

  65 to 72 cm

  25.59 to 28.35 in

• Range wingspan

  1.72 to 1.85 m

  5.64 to 6.07 ft

Re­pro­duc­tion

Tawny ea­gles are monog­a­mous, pair­ing for life. Be­hav­ior prior to and dur­ing mat­ing varies for this species, but usu­ally in­volves un­du­lat­ing dis­plays made by the male fol­lowed by mu­tual soar­ing dis­plays. Epigamic dis­play, dis­play that oc­curs dur­ing breed­ing, may in­volve high cir­cling, alone or in pairs, over the nest­ing site. The male may per­form a se­ries of "pot hooks" which in­volves a se­ries of grad­ual dives and swoops, with lit­tle to no wing flap­ping. The fe­male may turn over and pre­sent her claws in re­sponse to the male swoop­ing over her. Males and fe­males may lock claws in flight. Ac­tual mat­ing usu­ally oc­curs at or near the nest­ing site. (Brown and Amadon, 1968; Brown, 1977; Brown, et al., 1982; Maclean, 1988)

• Mating System
• monogamous

Tawny ea­gles breed once yearly. Breed­ing sea­son varies by ge­o­graphic lo­ca­tion, but typ­i­cally oc­curs from April to July. Males and fe­males both build the nest. Males col­lect nest ma­te­r­ial, while fe­males as­sem­ble the nest. Nests are usu­ally in trees or tele­phone poles and are oc­cu­pied for one to three years be­fore they are aban­doned. Fe­male tawny ea­gles lay one to three eggs at three day in­ter­vals and in­cu­bate them for ap­prox­i­mately 45 days. Al­though males pri­mar­ily feed off­spring while they are young, both par­ents bring food dur­ing fledg­ing, which oc­curs at ap­prox­i­mately 76 to 85 days old. Tawny ea­gles begin to fly around ten weeks, but chicks re­main in the nest for ap­prox­i­mately 5 more weeks after their first flight and re­main re­liant on their par­ents for food dur­ing this pe­riod. After that, the young be­come in­de­pen­dent. Sib­lings are ag­gres­sive to­wards one an­other, many times re­sult­ing in the death of the younger hatch­ling, usu­ally within the first few days of hatch­ing. (Brown, et al., 1982; Bur­ton, 1983; Camp­bell, 1983; Knys­tau­tas, 1993; Maclean, 1988)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Tawny eagles breed once yearly.

• Breeding season

  The breeding season of tawny eagles is generally from April to July.

• Range eggs per season

  1 to 3

• Range time to hatching

  39 to 45 days

• Range fledging age

  76 to 85 days

• Average fledging age

  84 days

• Average time to independence

  120 days

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  3 to 4 years

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  3 to 4 years

Fe­male tawny ea­gles gen­er­ally in­cu­bate the eggs, oc­ca­sion­ally as­sisted by males. For the first ten days fe­males re­main by the nest, brood­ing day and night, and males may also brood or shade the chicks from the sun. After 7 days fe­males leave the chicks for ex­tended pe­ri­ods, but stay near the nest to pro­tect them. They con­tinue to perch near the nest for ap­prox­i­mately forty days. At fifty days, nei­ther males nor fe­males are near the nest dur­ing the day. Males brings most of the food for the chicks, but may be as­sisted by fe­males after fifty days. Chicks make their first flight around 84 days old and may re­main in the nest for up to forty days after the first flight. How­ever, some young re­main with the par­ents until the fol­low­ing breed­ing sea­son. (Brown, et al., 1982; Bur­ton, 1983; Camp­bell, 1983)

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

The lifes­pan of adult ea­gles is dif­fi­cult to de­ter­mine in the wild. The old­est golden ea­gles, also in the genus Aquila, are recorded to have lived for sixty years. The av­er­age lifes­pan of golden ea­gles is 18 years, and they live ap­prox­i­mately 40 to 45 years in cap­tiv­ity. The lifes­pan of tawny ea­gles may be sim­i­lar to these val­ues. In East Africa it is es­ti­mated that the lifes­pan of tawny ea­gles is 16 years on av­er­age, as­sum­ing that there is a 75% mor­tal­ity rate be­fore sex­ual ma­tu­rity. Ea­gles live much longer in cap­tiv­ity, rarely reach­ing the same ages in the wild due to the high mor­tal­ity rate within the first twelve months of life. (Brown, 1977; Brown, et al., 1982; Love, 1989; "Sedg­wick County Zoo", 2006)

• Range lifespan
  Status: wild

  40.3 (high) years

• Average lifespan
  Status: wild

  16 years

• Typical lifespan
  Status: captivity

  40 to 45 years

Be­hav­ior

Tawny ea­gles are gre­gar­i­ous out­side of the breed­ing sea­son. Groups of at least twenty are com­monly ob­served, es­pe­cially when large amounts of food are lo­cally avail­able (such as swarms of lo­custs and large pop­u­la­tions of rats). Tawny ea­gles spend time near water where they can drink freely. Tawny ea­gles nor­mally fly only when ther­mals can as­sist in soar­ing, and usu­ally perch in trees dur­ing the day, es­pe­cially in heavy rain. Tawny ea­gles, like most other ea­gles, are di­ur­nal. Some pop­u­la­tions of tawny ea­gles are mi­gra­tory but many are not. (Brown, et al., 1982; Camp­bell, 1983; Chan­ning, 2006)

• Key Behaviors
• arboreal
• flies
• diurnal
• motile
• migratory
• sedentary
• territorial
• social

• Range territory size

  25 to 100 km^2

• Average territory size

  35-55 km^2

Home Range

Tawny ea­gles tend to oc­cupy the same ter­ri­tory for many years, some­times even decades, in pairs. Ter­ri­to­ries are usu­ally fairly far apart (20 km^2) to avoid food steal­ing by neigh­bor­ing tawny ea­gles. Ter­ri­to­ries may range from 25 to 100 km^2 in area, most are 35-55 km^2. (Brown, et al., 1982)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Tawny ea­gles are gen­er­ally fairly silent, ex­cept when ag­gra­vated or dis­play­ing. Their call can be de­scribed as a sharp kwok kwok. Oc­ca­sion­ally tawny ea­gles will call dur­ing acts of piracy. Fe­males may call from the nest, so­lic­it­ing food. In gen­eral, vi­sion is acute among ea­gles, and is likely to be their most im­por­tant sense. They are able to see prey clearly at dis­tances and up close. Their acute vi­sion may also help in es­tab­lish­ing ter­ri­to­ries. Hear­ing is also an im­por­tant sense for tawny ea­gles, as it helps them lo­cate prey when they are hunt­ing. (Brown, 1977; Brown, et al., 1982; Camp­bell, 1983)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Tawny ea­gles are gen­er­al­ist car­ni­vores, they will eat in­sects, car­rion, and small an­i­mals such as ro­dents. They are the only type of eagle that scav­enge from hu­mans reg­u­larly. Tawny ea­gles are also well known for rob­bing prey from other rap­tors, even birds much larger than they are. (Brown, 1977; Camp­bell, 1983)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • eats terrestrial vertebrates

• Animal Foods
• mammals
• carrion
• insects

Pre­da­tion

Nest pre­da­tion by crows oc­curs more reg­u­larly in the nests of tawny ea­gles than in other species, pos­si­bly due to the open­ness of the nest site. There is very lit­tle other in­for­ma­tion on other preda­tors or be­hav­iors to pre­vent pre­da­tion in tawny ea­gles. Tawny ea­gles are large birds of prey once they reach adult­hood, they are prob­a­bly do not have many preda­tors. (Brown, et al., 1982)

• Known Predators

  • crows (Corvus)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Tawny ea­gles are pri­mary preda­tors. They are also pi­rat­i­cal and op­por­tunis­tic. They will steal prey from other an­i­mals as well as scav­enge al­ready dead prey. (Brown, 1977; Camp­bell, 1983)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Tawny ea­gles are im­por­tant mem­bers of the ecosys­tems in which they live.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Tawny ea­gles are pi­rat­i­cal and steal and scav­enge food from other an­i­mals and hu­mans. They may oc­ca­sion­ally take do­mes­tic live­stock, al­though not often enough to have a sig­nif­i­cant neg­a­tive im­pact on hu­mans. (Brown and Amadon, 1968)

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

The cur­rent IUCN Red List sta­tus of this species is "lower risk/least con­cern."

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Joslyn West­phal (au­thor), Kala­ma­zoo Col­lege, Ann Fraser (ed­i­tor, in­struc­tor), Kala­ma­zoo Col­lege.

Ref­er­ences

Sedgewick County Zoo. 2006. "Sedg­wick County Zoo" (On-line). Golden Eagle. Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 09, 2006 at http://​www.​scz.​org/​animals/​e/​golden.​html.

Brown, L., E. Urban, K. New­man. 1982. The Birds of Africa Vol. 1. Lon­don: Aca­d­e­mic Press Inc.

Brown, L. 1977. Ea­gles of the World. New York, NY: Uni­verse Books.

Brown, L., D. Amadon. 1968. Ea­gles, Hawks, and Fal­cons of the World. New York, NY: Mc­Graw-Hill Book Com­pany.

Bur­ton, P. 1983. Van­ish­ing Ea­gles. New York, NY: Dodd, Mead & Com­pany, Inc.

Camp­bell, B. 1983. The Dic­tio­nary of Birds in Color. New York, NY: Ex­eter Books.

Chan­ning, K. 2006. "The Hawk Con­ser­vancy Trust" (On-line). Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 15, 2006 at http://​www.​hawk-conservancy.​org/​priors/​frodo.​shtml.

Clancey, P. 1964. Birds of Natal and Zu­l­u­land. Lon­don: Oliver and Boyd Ltd.

Knys­tau­tas, A. 1993. Birds of Rus­sia. Lon­don: Harper Collins Pub­lish­ers.

Love, J. 1989. Ea­gles. Lon­don: Whit­tet Books Ltd.

Maclean, G. 1988. Robert's Birds of South­ern Africa. Lon­don: New Hol­land Pub­lish­ers Ltd.