Birds of Pilansberg - Part 1

As all of you know by now I am not a birder nor do I have the right lenses to take good shots of them. However, with insects being scarce on my last trip to Pilansberg, I started to take some shots of the birds I saw and they did not turn out too badly so I decided to do a weekend series of them. Most of the series will be a variety of birds in each one but this African Hawk Eagle (Hieraaetus spilogaster) came out so well I thought I would do a post on them alone.

One of my greatest problems here was that it was early morning and I was having to shoot almost directly into the sun which did not help at all.
Francolin and Guineafowl are probably its main diet but it also feeds on small mammals such as mongooses and Dassies (Hyrax). Reptiles form part of their daily intake too.

The African Hawk Eagle is distributed from south of the Sahara to just south of the Tropic of Capricorn in South Africa.

Hilly woodland is their favored habitat.

Their nest is about 3 feet in diameter and made in the fork of a large tree.

They will usually breed from May to July. Both the male and female incubate the eggs for a period of up to 44 days.