Short-toed snake eagle
Circaetus gallicus
— Where the name comes from
Circaetus joins two Greek words: kírkos, the name of a hawk that wheels in circles, and aetós, eagle. It is “the eagle that circles”, which is exactly how it hunts. Gallicus means “of Gaul”, because Gmelin described it in 1788 from French specimens. The Italian name, biancone, comes from its almost white underparts, which seen from below make it look paler than any other European eagle.
— Facts
- Group
- Birds · Aves
- Order
- Diurnal birds of prey
- Habitat
- Garrigue, dry pasture, sunny hills with open woodland to nest in
- Range
- Southern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and India; winters in the Sahel
- Size
- 62–69 cm, wingspan 170–185 cm, 1.2–2.3 kg
- Diet
- Almost nothing but snakes, some a metre long; the odd lizard
- Lifespan
- Over 15 years in the wild
— Characteristics
- 01
It hunts hanging still in mid-air, beating its wings into the wind like a giant kestrel.
- 02
It swallows snakes whole, head first, often while still flying.
- 03
It lays a single egg a year.
— What sets it apart
It is not immune to venom. It grips the snake behind the head and crushes it with its beak before it can bite, and its legs are covered in thick scales that fangs struggle to pierce: everything else is speed. With its only chick it does something that looks like a circus act. It returns to the nest with a snake already half swallowed, the tail hanging from its beak, and the chick grabs the tail and pulls the whole snake out of the parent’s throat. Within a few weeks the chick swallows snakes longer than its own body.
