Black Eagle with Christmas Dinner.

[TStone]

T

[TStone]

For some reason my text disappeared in the OP.

This morning I found two black eagles (Verreaux's eagles) sitting on the ground, eating something. When I approached them, they flew off although I managed to get one (bad) photo of the one. On closer inspection I found a freshly killed springbok lamb. While I have found Verreaux's eagles scavenging on jackal-, caracal- and cheetah kills, I have never found them on a springbok killed by themselves.

[Dinat]

Amazing. Thanks for sharing TStone


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[SoldierMan]

For some reason my text disappeared in the OP.

This morning I found two black eagles (Verreaux's eagles) sitting on the ground, eating something. When I approached them, they flew off although I managed to get one (bad) photo of the one. On closer inspection I found a freshly killed springbok lamb. While I have found Verreaux's eagles scavenging on jackal-, caracal- and cheetah kills, I have never found them on a springbok killed by themselves.

Are you sure they killed it?
Any idea how would they do it, were there other wounds?

[TStone]

Are you sure they killed it?
Any idea how would they do it, were there other wounds?

The kill was very fresh and there were claw marks on the back and no bite marks on the throat or neck. I really do not know how they kill their prey but will try to find out. They are known to prey on antelope and I once saw a pair chasing a mature grey rhebuck ewe from one clump of bush to another although, in that case, she escaped.

[Heath Robinson]

Very nice sighting!

Have you seen the size of the claws on those things, close up?

For anyone with even the remotest interest in raptors, there are a couple of raptor rehab centres in the country that do informative shows. For example Dullstroom Birds of Prey. Their primary purpose is to rehabilitate birds for re-release into the wild. You can walk through between the cages where birds are kept which for whatever reason can't be re-habilitated, and twice daily they have a show where they fly selected trained birds and expain their habits and so forth. These are of course done to raise money so attendance is not free but the prices are very reasonable.

[SoldierMan]

The kill was very fresh and there were claw marks on the back and no bite marks on the throat or neck. I really do not know how they kill their prey but will try to find out. They are known to prey on antelope and I once saw a pair chasing a mature grey rhebuck ewe from one clump of bush to another although, in that case, she escaped.

Very interesting. Didn't think they would risk getting their wings damaged by the hoofs for instance if it fought back.

[griffin]

That’s a rather big catch. Haha. Thanks for sharing.


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[TStone]

That’s a rather big catch. Haha. Thanks for sharing.


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They are rather big birds.

[Pirate]

Very nice sighting!

I guess they would have gone back to the kill later, or would the next opportunist (jackal / brown hyena) have tried for an innings?