Tag Archives: Bateleur

Satara Summer 2021 – Bateleur Lunch

Bateleurs are beautiful eagles, and always attract attention from visitors to our Kruger National Park, one of their few remaining strongholds in South Africa. Being able to watch this one gulp down a Natal Spurfowl – feathers and all – that it had killed next to the road leading to Nwanetsi from Satara is another lasting memory from our visit to Kruger Park in December 2021.

Bateleur feast

Bateleur feast (that’s a Greater Blue-eared Starling hoping for scraps)

Bateleur feast

Meal finished, the Bateleur takes off again

Libra the Bateleur

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Libra is an immature Bateleur that was badly injured after being hit by a vehicle. So badly injured in fact, that a vet advised she be euthanised. The dedicated staff at the Dullstroom Bird of Prey and Rehabilitation Centre decided neverthless to give saving her life their best shot, and today Libra is finding her wings again, so to speak. Libra’s a very shy youngster – reminiscent of a child hiding behind her mother when meeting a stranger – and the way she has bonded with her caregiver Magdali will melt your heart.

Libra with Magdali at the Dullstroom Bird of Prey Centre

Libra the Bateleur

Libra the Bateleur (photo by Joubert)

As a registered NGO receiving no government support, the Dullstroom Bird of Prey and Rehabilitation Centre relies heavily on donors, sponsors and the visiting public to fund their very important work. Their tiny staff compliment is responsible for the rehabilitation of between 80 and 200 birds of prey every year, all of them injured by or negatively impacted in another way by humans, and then releasing them back into the wild when they’ve recovered sufficiently. If you can’t visit them in person, please visit their website and, if you are able to, assist them in their efforts by making a donation (monetary or in kind).

Bateleur

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Terathopius ecaudatus

Considered an ill omen in the traditional folklore of many African societies, the Bateleur is our most colourful eagle and easily identified in flight by its short tail. They get their name from their acrobatic aerial courtship displays, “bateleur” being French for acrobat. Adults have a wingspan of just under 2 meters and weigh around 2.5kg.

Bateleurs inhabit open habitats, ranging from semi-desert shrublands and grasslands to savannas and open woodlands. They prey on a variety of smaller mammals, birds, reptiles (including venomous snakes), insects and even fish and amphibians, caught from drying pools. They also include a large percentage of carrion in their diet – in fact, they are usually one of the first species to arrive at a carcass. They spend many hours daily on the wing, gliding fast and low over the ground in search of food and covering as much of 400km a day in this way!

In southern Africa, Bateleurs breed in the summer rainy season. Pairs are monogamous, staying together for life, and territorial. Nests are stick-platforms built in the canopies of tall trees, usually along water courses, and lined with leaves. The single egg is incubated for almost two months. Both parents play their part in feeding the chick, which takes its first flight when it is 3 to 4 months old and becomes independent about 7 months after hatching. Young Bateleurs are highly nomadic until they establish their own pairbonds and territories.

The Bateleur’s natural distribution extends over most of sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of the driest deserts and equatorial forests, with a small population on the Arabian Peninsula. Habitat loss, poaching and poisoning is causing Bateleur populations to decline all over their range and they are becoming increasingly restricted to the large game reserves and national parks. It is now listed as “Near Threatened” by the IUCN, and considered vulnerable in South Africa. South Africa’s biggest population occurs in and around the Kruger National Park, estimated at around 600 breeding pairs, while elsewhere in the country they are now only to be found in the reserves of northern Kwazulu-Natal, the Lowveld of Mpumalanga and Limpopo, along the Limpopo valley, and in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park while they were previously much more widespread.