Crowned Eagle - Ecology

Ecology

The Crowned Eagle is non-migratory and is largely sedentary, usually inhabiting a fixed territory for most of its lifespan. There is evidence that the birds migrate moderate distances when circumstances require it, for example when changing mates in isolated breeding areas. Such migration is local in scale and is not comparable to the seasonal migrations of some other eagle species (e.g., the Steppe Eagle.)

Whilst essentially an elusive species (owing mostly to its habitat), the Crowned Eagle is highly vocal and has a noisy, undulating display flight. In Equatorial Africa, they often call year-around, while elsewhere they vocalize mainly in the breeding season. The male performs an elaborate rise-and-fall display, engaging in undulating steep dives, stoops and spins over the forest canopy both during the breeding season and outside it as a territorial proposition. During this display, the male is noisy, uttering a shrill kewee-kewee-kewee, and may reach heights exceeding 900 metres (3,000 ft). The voice is a series of loud whistles that rise and fall in pitch. The female may also perform independent display flights, uttering a lower kooee-kooee-kooee, and pairs are also known to collaborate in spectacular tandems, interlocking talons and falling some distance from the sky. While awaiting food at the nest, both the female and the young call out a penetrating, high kwee-kwee-kwee, that can border on incessant.