Short-toed eagle

Short-toed eagles are rare summer guests in the Netherlands. Until now, there are no registered breeding cases. From 1993 on, yearly one or more sightings are registered in areas with high volumes of reptiles, such as the Veluwe and Fochteloër veen in Drenthe. I haven't seen them in Holland but did see them in the Spanish Pyrenees and Andalucia.


All my pictures can be found here.

Field characteristics

Short-toed eagles are 62 - 69 cm and have a wingspan of 1,62m to 1,78m. It is a middle-sized eagle with a relatively heavy, owlish head (with big yellow eyes). In all plumages this eagle has a very light underside, with in most cases a dark head, altough also birds with a light head occur. The wings are long and broad, without dark wrist patches on the underwings. In flight the wrists are held in a characteristic hooked position. The tail is relatively long, sharply hooked and cut straight, banded with a number of small dark bands and a dark terminal band.

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