Aquila rapax
Silhouette: Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
The tawny eagle (Aquila rapax) is a large bird of prey. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. Its heavily feathered legs mark it as a member of the subfamily Aquilinae, also known as booted eagles. Tawny eagles have an extensive but discontinuous breeding range that constitutes much of the African continent as well as the Indian subcontinent, with rare residency in the southern Middle East. Throughout its range, it favours open dry habitats such as semideserts, deserts steppes, or savanna plains. Despite its preference for arid areas, the species seldom occurs in areas where trees are entirely absent. It is a resident breeder which lays one to three eggs in a stick nest most commonly in the crown of a tree. The tawny eagle is perhaps the most highly opportunistic of all Aquilinae, and often scavenges on carrion or engages in kleptoparasitism towards other carnivorous animals but is also a bold and active predator, often of relatively large and diverse prey. It is estimated that tawny eagles can reach the age of 16 years old. Nonetheless, precipitous declines have been detected throughout the tawny eagle's range. Numerous factors, particularly loss of nesting habitat due to logging and global warming, as well as persecution (largely via poisoning) and other anthropogenic mortality (largely through contact with various manmade objects) are driving the once numerous tawny eagle perhaps to the brink of extinction.
It is also the national animal of Ghana. Wikipedia →
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Le rocher des aigles | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 2 | Mysore Zoo | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Lahore Zoo | 🇵🇰 Pakistan | |
| 4 | Dullstroom Bird Of Prey & Rehabilitation Centre | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 5 | Leningrad Zoo | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 6 | Volerie des aigles | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 7 | Donjon des aigles | 🇫🇷 France |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Tawny Eagle sighting in Waterberg Plateau Park on a given day, based on 13 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 106th most-seen of the 118 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 and November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Tawny Eagle in Waterberg Plateau Park on a given day, against under 5% in May, August–October and December–March, the lowest months. Those are among Waterberg Plateau Park's driest months, with about 10 mm of rain a month against 110 mm in January. April and June have too few records to rate.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Tawny 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.
37th of 42
Of the 42 parks where we can rate Tawny Eagle sightings, Waterberg Plateau Park ranks 37th at about 10%. The best odds are in Tarangire National Park (Tanzania, about 60%), Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (South Africa, about 60%) and Serengeti National Park (Tanzania, about 60%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Aquila
The closest relatives of the Tawny Eagle that you can see in Waterberg Plateau Park (genus Aquila, True Eagles) are Verreaux's Eagle (about 40%) and African Hawk-Eagle (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Tawny Eagle is recorded against all the birds logged in Waterberg Plateau Park (13 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.
