Table Of Content

Greater Spotted Eagle Aquila clanga in Tanzania and its status in Africa Ron Demey andNikBorronJ3 UnAiglecriardAquilaclangaaetevupresdeHedara, danslenorddelaTanzanie, le 31 decembre 1998. Ceciconstituela premiereobservationdirectede cette especedans le pays; sapresenceenTanzanieavait toutefoisdejaeteconstateeparsatelliteen1996et1997,graceaunindividuequiped'unemetteurradio.L'Aigle criardestunvisiteurPalearctiqueassezraresurlecontinent.Unapercuestpresentedesadistributionafricaine. Yu la rarete de l’espece. il est estime que 10a 20individusseulementhivementau sud de l’equateur. O n31December1998,wefoundaGreaterSpotted followingyear,on23November,thesamebirdwasonce EagleAquilaclanganearHedara(=Hedam),north- again located in Tanzania, 20 km north ofthe Zambian ernTanzania(04°30'S37°54'E).Thebirdhadbeenfeeding border and 54 km east of Lake Tanganyika, before it onaKirk'sDik-dikMadoquakirkiialongatarmacroad. reaimed to exactly the same wintering site in South On our approach it flew to a small Acacia, where it Luangwa National Park'. perched beside a Tawny Eagle A. rapax and allowed Thespecies,whichisclassifiedasVulnerable2 isarare , prolongedobservationfromadistanceofc25m. Itwasa PalearcticwintervisitortoAfrica.InEgypt,itisararewinter very dark, uniformly blackish brown, ratherstocky and visitorandpassagemigrantthroughSinaiandtheRedSea massiveeagle,noticeablylargerandheavierthanitspale Mountainsduiingmid-September-earlyMay5.Mostbirds fulvous-browncompanion.Thebillwasbluishgreywith reaching sub-Saharan Africa appear to winter in the ayellowcereandtheyellowgapeextendedtobelowthe Ethiopianhighlands,wherethespecieshasbeenrecorded centreoftheeye, whichwasdark. fromOctober-March15.InEritreaitwasformerlyreported After having observed the birds at length through asa common passage migrant inNovember, withsome binoculars and telecopes, we flushed them in order to birdswintering11; itspresentstatusisunknown. InSudan observetheirflightpatterns.Inflight,thelargereaglehad ithasbeenrecordedafewtimesonpassageinNovember amorecompactshapethantheTawnyEagle,withbroad andFebruary-Aprilinthenorthernandeasternpartsofthe wings,arelativelyshort,roundedtailandalessprotruding country5. There are 12 accepted records from Kenya, head.Flightandtailfeathersappeareduniformlyblackish. principallyfromthevicinityoftheRiftValleylakes16.The Therewasnocontrastbetweenthewing-covertsandflight satellite-trackedbirdmentionedaboveconstitutedthefirst feathers. Otherfeartires included a narrow whitish cres- definiterecordsouthofKenya;itwasalsothefirstspecies cent on the uppertail-coverts, a small pale patch on the to be admitted to the Zambianlistwithout havingbeen back, anda small pale patch, formed bywhitish feather seen by an observer within Zambia6 The same should . shafts, atthebase oftheblackishprimaries. now apply to the Ugandan list: although included by The combination oflarge size, compact shape, uni- Britton1 thespecieswassubsequentlyremovedfromthe , formblackishbrownplumage,mediumgapelengthand. list because no satisfactory substantiation could be ob- darkeyecolourarecharacteristicofadultGreaterSpotted tainedfromtheobserver9andithasnotsubsequentlybeen Eagle(Forsman 1999).LesserSpottedEagle,theprincipal reportedfromthecountry310.Thereisapossiblesighting confusionspecies,typicallyhasamorecontrasting, paler fromSouthAfrica,atNylsvleiinearly1998,butthishasyet brownplumage,inwhichthepalerwing-covertscontrast tobe confirmed6. withthedarkerremiges.Italsohasapale,notdark,iris4,6. InWestAfrica, GreaterSpottedEaglehas onlybeen SteppeEaglehasaconspicuouslylonggapeextendingto recordedwithcertaintyinChadandCameroon.InChad, belowtherearoftheeye. a female was trapped near N’Djamena on 22 January ThisappearstobethefirstsightingofGreaterSpotted 197115andthefemaleofthepairtrackedbysatellitein1996 EagleinTanzania,althoughthespecieshasrecentlybeen spentthewinterinthe.country7.InCameroon,thespecies trackedbysatelliteaboveTanzanianterritory.Themaleof hasbeenobservedtwiceinthe north, in Februaryand a pair fitted with a satellite transmitter on its breeding / orApril 1973, but has not been reported since12,13. grounds in Biebrza National Park, north-east Poland, in Giventhe species’ rarity, MeyburgetaTestimate July1996,wastrackedtoitswinteringgroundsinZambia, that probably only 10-20 birds may winter south of viaUganda andwesternTanzania; itcrossedtheTanza- the Equator. nia-Zambia border on 17 or 18 December 1996. The GreaterSpottedEaglein Tanzania: Demey&Borrow BullABC Vol6No2-145 Acknowledgements 8. Nikolaus, G. 1987. Distribution atlas of Sudan's The observation of the Greater Spotted Eagle in birds with noteson habitat and status. Bonn. Zool. Tanzania was made during a Birdquest tour. We Monogr. 25: 1-322. thank ourcompanions in the field: C. &A. Allen, G. 9. cPeoamrsmoonn,PaD.lJa.earacntidcmTiugrrnaenrt,biDr.dAs.of1U9g8a6n.daT.hSecolpeusss Field, B. Finch, F. &J. Hooijmans, R. Smith and R. 10 61-82 Swinnen. RobertJ. Dowsettisthankedforcomments 10. Ros:souw,.J. and Sacchi, M. 1998. Where to watch on a draft ofthis note. Cf> birdsin Uganda. Kampala: Uganda Tourist Board. 11. Smith, K.D. 1957. An annotated check list of the References birds ofEritrea. Ibis99: 1-26. 1. Britton, P.L. (ed.) 1980. Birds ofEastAfrica: their 12. Scholte,P.,deKort,S.andvanWeerd,M. 1999.The habitat, statusanddistribution. Nairobi: EANHS. birdsoftheWaza-Logonearea, FarNorthProvince, 2. Collar,N.J.,Crosby,M.J. andStattersfield,A.J. 1994. Cameroon. Malimbus 21: 16-50. Birdsto Watch2: theworldchecklistofthreatened 13- Thiollay,J.-M. 1978.LesplainesduNordCameroun. birds. Cambridge, UK: BirdLife International. Centredhivernagederapacespalearctiques.Alauda 3. Dowsett, R.J. and Dowsett-Lemaire, F. 1993- A 46: 314-326. Contribution to theDistribution and Taxonomyof 14. Urban, E.K. & Brown, L.H. 1971. A checklistofthe AfrotropicalandMalagasyBirds.TauracoResearch birds ofEthiopia. Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa Uni- Report 3. Liege: Tauraco Press. versity Press. 4. Forsman, D. 1999- The raptors ofEurope and the 15. Vielliard, J. 1972. Donnees biogeographiques sur MiddleEast. London, UK: T. & A. D. Poyser. l’avifaune dAfrique centrale. Alauda 40: 63-92. 5. Goodman, S.M. & Meininger, P.L. (eds) 1989. The 16. Zimmerman, D.A., Turner, D.A. & Pearson, D.J. birdsofEgypt.Oxford,UK:OxfordUniversityPress. 1996.BirdsofKenyaandnorthern Tanzania. Lon- 6. Leonard, P.M. 1998. Newto Zambia: GreaterSpot- don, UK: A & C Black. tedEagleAquilaclanga.ZambiaBirdReport1997: “Heimstraat52, 2582SBDen Haag, TheNetherlands. 3-5. 7. Meyburg, B.-U., Meyburg, C., Mizera, T., bc/o Birdquest, Two Jays, Kemple End, Birdy Brow, Maciorowski, G. and Kowalski, J. 1998.—Greater Stonyhurst, LancashireBB79QY, UK. SpottedEaglewinteringinZambia.Africa Birds& Birding 3 (1): 63-68. Tanzania:2wks:September SPECIALISED SouthAfrica:2wks:October ^aW^On’^ BIRDWATCHINGTOURS TheGambia: 1/2wks:December Morocco:2wks:March2000 Kenya:2wks:April2000 Tailor-made tours forsmall groups to top VisitusattheBBF,RutlandWater,20th-22ndAugust birdwatchhingspots in SouthernAfrica sarus bird tours P1o20B0,oxSo5u0t7,hANferliscparuit URSKARPerproemsoetnitoantsive: 6Sm9alClaGnrtoeuprsbwuirthyEDxrpeirvte,LeaBduerrsy.,AfBriLc8anSIpBecPi,aliUstKs TFealx: ++2277113377555512719437 E1ssHeyxd,eSwSa7y,3BThEundersley FTaelx:: 00116611 77691767224739 eImntaeirl:ne:tla:[email protected] TFealx::0011226688775529882374 web:Agheet-ntmtpas:i/lf:/[email protected]/ks9a2rus 146-BullABC Vol6No2 GreaterSpottedEagle in Tanzania: Demey&Borrow