Whilst the Martial Eagle is Africa's largest eagle this bird is Africa's most powerful eagle.


Gazing into the eyes of a Crowned Eagle stirs a deep-rooted primal fear. These eagles hunt primates! In fact there is now convincing evidence to suggest that these birds hunted early hominids (eg the "Taung child": http://www.sciencedi...047248485710603 ).
Crowned Eagles hunted our early ancestors!


It doesn't end there however as Peter Steyn wrote in Birds of Prey of Southern Africa (1982): "One grisly item found on a nest in Zimbabwe by the famous wildlife artist D. M. Henry was part of the skull of a young human. That preying on young humans may very occasionally occur is borne out by a carefully authenticated incident in Zambia where an immature Crowned Eagle attacked a 20 kg seven- year old schoolboy as he went to school. It savagely clawed him on head, arms, and chest, but he grabbed it by the neck and was saved by a peasant woman with a hoe, who killed it, whereafter both eagle and boy were taken to a nearby mission hospital. The boy was nowhere near a nest, so the attack can only have been an attempt at predation."


These Eagles have been known to kill forest antelope as large as female Bushbuck -death usually results from traumatic haemorrhaging as a consequence of damage inflicted by the long powerful hind-claw!


The bird above is a young adult female probably entering her fifth year.