Circaetus gallicus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
The short-toed snake eagle (Circaetus gallicus), also known as the short-toed eagle, is a medium-sized bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as kites, buzzards and harriers. The genus name Circaetus is from the Ancient Greek kirkos, a type of hawk, and aetos, "eagle". The specific gallicus means "of Gallia".
The short-toed snake eagle was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the falcons, eagles and their relatives in the genus Falco and coined the binomial name Falco gallicus. Gmelin based his description on the "Jean le Blanc" that had been described by the English ornithologist John Latham and the French ornithologists Mathurin Jacques Brisson and the Comte de Buffon. The short-toed snake eagle is now placed in the genus Circaetus that was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot. The genus name is from the Ancient Greek kirkos, a type of hawk, and aetos, "eagle". The specific epithet gallicus is Latin for "Gaul" ie France.
Two subspecies are recognised: C... Wikipedia →
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Parc des oiseaux | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 2 | Zoobotánico Jerez | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 3 | Jerusalem Biblical Zoo | 🇮🇱 Israel | |
| 4 | Zoo Santo Inácio | 🇵🇹 Portugal | |
| 5 | Midbarium | 🇮🇱 Israel | |
| 6 | Marcelle Natureza | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 7 | Zoopark Limpopo | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 8 | Odesa Zoo | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | |
| 9 | Zoo de Córdoba | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 10 | Les Aigles du Léman | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 11 | Affenberg Landskron | 🇦🇹 Austria | |
| 12 | VigoNature | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 13 | Zoo Koki (Parque zoológico y botánico) | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 14 | Castellar Zoo | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 15 | Adlerarena Burg Landskron | 🇦🇹 Austria | |
| 16 | Hôpital faune sauvage Garrigues - Cévennes | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 17 | Donjon des aigles | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 18 | Greifvogelwarte Riegersburg | 🇦🇹 Austria |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Short-toed Eagle sighting in Mercantour National Park on a given day, based on 38 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 67th most-seen of the 79 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July to September
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Short-toed Eagle in Mercantour National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February, April–June and October, the lowest months. March and November–January have too few records to rate.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Short-toed Eagle sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
13th of 30
Of the 30 parks where we can rate Short-toed Eagle sightings, Mercantour National Park ranks 13th at about 10%. The best odds are in Cévennes National Park (France, about 30%), Monfragüe National Park (Spain, about 20%) and Ecrins National Park (France, about 20%).
Same family: Accipitridae
The closest relatives of the Short-toed Eagle that you can see in Mercantour National Park (family Accipitridae, Hawks, Eagles, and Kites) are Griffon Vulture (about 50%), Golden Eagle (about 20%) and Common Buzzard (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Short-toed Eagle is recorded against all the birds logged in Mercantour National Park (38 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
