I sometimes feel that I drone on too much about all the large game, and that’s really not fair to all other species. Size is not all!
I read recently that “birding” is the most popular hobby in the US, with over 60 million fans. Incredible. And yes, we do have regular birders here, and they have hundreds of reasons to love it here. In fact about 400 reasons, as that is the estimated amount of bird species that have been seen on our reserve. That might be the highest bird life density to be found anywhere, so there’s a strong message to all birders out there.
Uyai took a wonderful shot of a Martial Eagle yesterday. See the photo! Well done.
We have about half a dozen different eagle species on our reserve, but this one is a very, very large one. Its wingspan can go up to 2.6m (yep, that’s not a typo, I triple checked), and a length of almost a meter for the body. It is the largest eagle in Africa, and the fifth heaviest eagle in the world.
The Martial Eagle is one of the world’s most powerful avian predators, so it has no real “natural” predators. They hunt smaller birds, such as Egyptian Geese, but also large lizards (such as the rock monitor), snakes (boomslangs, puff adders, green mambas, cobras and even pythons)
Due to poisoning, drowning risks in farm water reservoirs, as well as hunting and habitat encroaching, this bird has greatly suffered, and it is now ranked as “vulnerable” in Africa. So it is superbly rewarding to see this eagle do well on our reserve, they need this kind of space.
Here another photo. Just beautiful.
