African Crowned Eagle

African Crowned Eagle

With the recent skirmishes that had affected some parts of the country making many people homeless, the African Crowned Eagles in Ngong Forest were also not spared. It was in mid December when we went on our patrol, we found that the huge nest which is the home to the eagles, was invaded by Sykes Monkeys who were annoyed by continuing depletion of their members. This was because they are sources of food for these large birds of prey. The birds were not there, perhaps they had gone hunting but on returning they found that they were one of the IDPS, as they now had nowhere to go.

The eagles have been staying out in the cold for about five months but now we were very happy to see them back, starting to construct their nest. We monitored the building process and it took almost a fortnight to complete and now we see that the eagle spends the night in the nest.

African Crowned Eagles are very huge and are one of the biggest birds of prey in Africa. they are very rare because they are found in Africa’s dwindling forests and because they have that attitude of Cain-ism (from the bible). the first chick to be born is lucky to survive as it will kills its siblings! this means that it will have enough to eat, it takes 3-4 years to acquire its adult plumage.

Please help the forest guards conserve the habitat of the Crowned Eagle by protecting it from woodcutters and debarkers and by monitoring important features such as this nest.

This photo of a young male Crown eagle is one taken by Simon Thomsitt, full details on his work with Kenyan birds of prey can be found