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Why is the Snake Eagle actually called Snake Eagle?

  • March 07, 2023 | Rhulani Safari Lodge

Our funny ranger Alasdair, also known as “Captain Redbeard”, tells us another of his recent funny anecdotes. That afternoon he was roaming through nature, and the conversation with his bird-interested guests turned to the "Brown Snake Eagle". Why is this bird called that? Not even once in his life our experienced Alasdair has seen this bird with a snake in its.

The Brown Snake Eagle ... with a snake in its mouth

If you love birds, the brown snake eagle is one of the attractions in Madikwe Game Reserve. It is a fairly large species of bird of prey. A very solitary bird, and it continues to occur over a very broad range.

Virtually any reasonably sized snake, regardless of whether harmless or venomous is taken more or less indiscriminately. Snake Eagles have natural protection against bites. They can take boomslang, puff adder and black-necked spitting cobra or even adult black mambas. 

But that's just what the books say. Alasdair explained to his guests that like all other birds of prey, these birds prefer to have a different diet. This includes monitor lizards, toads, francolins, guineafowl and chickens as well as rats.

So the name "Snake Eagle" is a huge exaggeration.

And so the journey continued until a little later ... you already know it. There was a Brown Snake Eagle sitting on the tree. With a snake in his mouth!

"That was worth a photo," says Alasdair. And now he knows why the Snake Eagle is called Snake Eagle!