Bateleur

This species is native to broad areas of Sub-Saharan Africa and scarcely up into Arabia. It is characteristically a bird of somewhat open habitats such as savanna with some trees present and open dry woodland. It is in life history, a rather peculiar bird of prey with a free-wheeling generalist diet that includes much carrion but also tends to hunt a wide range of live prey, including many small to unexpectedly relatively large mammals and reptiles along with generally relatively small birds. Bateleurs are highly aerial birds that spend much time soaring and will frequently fly with exaggerated embellishments, perhaps when excited or angered.

Distribution and habitat

The bateleur occupies a very large range through mainly sub-Saharan Africa. The species resides in West Africa from southern Mauritania to Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, the northern portions of Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and much of Ghana through western Burkina Faso, much of Togo and Benin and northern and central Nigeria. It is possibly extinct in Mauritania, range restricted in Guinea (mainly to Kiang West) and Liberia but is still locally common where good habitat remains elsewhere in this region. Similarly far north, a rare population is believed to persist out of Africa in extreme southwestern Saudi Arabia and western Yemen. In central and east Africa, the bateleur may be found in northern Cameroon, southern Niger, southern Chad, southern Sudan, South Sudan, northern Central African Republic, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, western Somalia, northern, eastern and southern Democratic Republic of the Congo and a majority of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. In Southern Africa, the bateleur is found quite widely, being found almost throughout, where habitat is favorable, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique.

The bateleur is a common to fairly common resident or nomadic bird of the partially open savanna country and of woodland within Sub-Saharan Africa. During breeding, it tends to require closed-canopy savannah-woodland habitats, including Acacia savanna as well as mopane and miombo woodlands. They may too acclimate to thornveld and overall various fairly shrubby areas.

Hunting

They are scavengers, although they do catch some live prey. Many small animals make up the bird’s diet, including rodents, birds (such as pigeons, doves, hornbills, and even other raptors), lizards, fish, insects, and frogs. Bateleurs are also known as the African Snake Eagle, and is one of the few animals that eats venomous snakes. When hunting it will puff itself up, so if the snake strikes it will only get a mouthful of feathers.

To hunt, they will fly as low as 45 m above the ground to look for food, spending 8-9 hours on the wing a day, over a range of up to 200 km². They search for carcasses from the air and have been known to follow roads in search of animals killed by traffic. Bateleurs are attracted to veld fires; they snatch up animals that died in the heat or catch ones that are trying to escape. As with other eagles, kleptoparasitism (stealing food from other animals) is not uncommon behavior.

Conservation status

Bateleurs have been listed as Near Threatened by BirdLife International. The population is decreasing and their habitat is shrinking, and they are now restricted to protected areas having been eliminated from farmland in South Africa. They are also under threat from pesticides, poisoned bait left for jackals, and trapping for international trade.