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Quotes from Eagles, Hawks and Falcons of the World by Leslie Brown and Dean Amadon, 1989, pages 672-674.
Verreaux’s or Black Eagle, Aquila verreauxi
Found in high mountains, desert, thornscrub, and savannah regions near rocky hills. Verreaux’s Eagle is generally confined to the vicinity of rocky hills and rags in rather dry country, also in high mountains breeding to 13,000 feet.
Formerly thought to be very rare, it has been shown in recent times [in 1968] to be far more common than was supposed, notably in East Africa and Rhodesia. In suitable habitat pairs will be found only 4 or 5 miles apart, and in the Matopos hills in Rhodesia, even less (1-3 miles apart). Its distribution coincides in general with that of the principal food animal, the hyrax, but it is not always found in places where hyrax abound and which seem otherwise suitable.
The known range of a pair may be 2-5 square miles of rocky hill country, with a more extended range occasionally hunted, in one case of up to 80 square miles.
In flight the birds soar with scarcely a wing beat, quartering the slopes of the rocky hills on which they hunt, but spending hours in the air without any real intention of hunting. Prey is usually caught by a quick twist and plunge, and is all taken on the ground.
Food is about 80% mammalian, the staple being the rock hyrax (Procavia and Heterohyrax). Some pairs take many birds, francolins, guineafowl, and occasional poultry. Small antelopes, dikdiks (Rhynchotragus species) and hares are also recorded, occasional reptiles, and a few carnivorous mammals such as mongoose.
The birds have from 1-3 nests, sometimes more, usually built on crags, but occasionally in trees. When on crags they are usually in a very inaccessible portion of the crag, frequently in an overhung niche, sometimes where a tree grows out of a crevice. The nests are not usually very large for an eagle of this size, being flattish structures, made of large sticks and often, by reason of their site on a narrow ledge, much broader than they are deep.
Building a new nest may begin about 4 months before the eggs are laid, and both sexes build, the female more than the male in observed cases. Repair of an old nest may be slight or extensive, and in the latter part of building or nest repair all material brought consists of green branches, which continue to be brought by both sexes up to the late fledging period.
Two eggs are laid as a rule, sometimes only one, rarely three. They are laid at 3-day intervals and in known cases have been laid in the middle of the day. Both sexes incubate, but the female takes the major share by day and sits all night; some males may sit for 40-50% of the daylight hours, and an increase in the male’s share towards the hatch has been observed. The parents are close sitters, not easily disturbed from the nest. The incubation period is 43-46 days, and the eggs hatch 2-3 days apart, and take about 24 hours from first chipping to hatching.
No food is given to the newly hatched eaglet by the parents in the first 30-36 hours; thereafter it is fed regularly, and the parents tend to spend longer periods on the nest than do some other eagles.
One egg is sometimes infertile, but when two eaglets hatch the elder normally kills the younger.
In the early period the eaglet is brooded by either parent, for up to 90% of the day. During this time the male brings most of the prey. After 20 days the parents spend up to 30% of the daylight hours with the eaglet in the nest, not brooding it in daylight. Feathers appear through the down at about 34 days and by 60 days the feathers cover the down. After 50 days when the eaglet is well feathered the female brings a larger share of the prey. At this time also she ceases to roost in the nest with the eaglet, and returns to the company of her mate some distance away; this behavior must vary a good deal with individuals. The eaglet requires parental assistance with feeding up to 45-50 days, but from that time on the prey brought by the parents is left on the nest, the parents making no attempt to assist the eaglet.
In Equatorial Africa the eaglet leaves the nest at 95-99 days, making its first flight independent of the parents, and returning to the nest to roost at intervals during the first fortnight after it leaves. After leaving the nest the family party may stay together for up to 6 months, the eaglet gradually growing stronger on the wing after the first month and accompanying the parents on their hunting forays away from the nest. At the onset of the succeeding breeding season the young one, if still in the vicinity, may be driven away. A young bird ringed in one area was recovered the following year 120 miles away.
Some pairs are regular in their breeding, producing an eaglet year after year, others apparently irregular, breeding only once in two years or less. Calculating as for other eagles the average life in the wild state may be about 16 years.
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JUST AMAZING HOW THIS CHICK GROWS INTO A GORGEOUS BLACK EAGLE!
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It really is, Bunnie. I am amazed at the variety of coloration depending on the location/type of raptors. The eagles vary a lot between the white tailed eagle, the bald eagle, black eagle etc. but they all seem to have that distinctive eagle eye. S/he is a beauty and will be an amazing adult.
"The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes...if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life." Frank Lloyd Wright
We have a name for the Black Eaglet - JONO I copied what was written on the chat side this morning:
7:43 Tersh2704: just saw on Africam, the eaglet has been named "JONO", after Jon Oliver who passed away days before the eaglet hatched 7:45 Tersh2704: Jon's work with the Black Eaglet Project over the past five years was truly cutting edge. He worked tirelessly to make sure each and every year the project, and the live camera used to monitor it. 7:46 Tersh2704: He worked tirelessly to make sure each and every year the project, and the live camera used to monitor it, would be a success. 7:46 Tersh2704: His contributions to the Black Eagle Project will be sorely missed, but we know his memory will live on through Emoyeni's baby eaglet, "Jono". 7:47 Tersh2704: I have copied the above excerpts from Africam Bl E 7-17-14 JONO.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
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Wed Jun 25, 2014 9:10 am
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I copied what was written on the chat side this morning:
Long live Jono... 