Bateleur

Appearance

The Bateleur is of note for its unique morphology and plumage, with some anatomical similarities to both snake eagles and vultures. The species has a thick neck and a very large, rather conspicuously cowled head with a proportionately short bill, albeit one covered with a very large cere. Even while perched, the body tends to be dominated by their exceptionally large wings, that possess some 25 secondary feathers, perhaps more than any other raptor.

Published measurements include mass about 168.

Due to the conspicuous behaviour and colorful plumage, the Bateleur is frequently described in superlatives such as "one of the most beautiful and spectacular things that flies".

Range and habitat

The Bateleur occupies a very large range through mainly sub-Saharan Africa. It is possibly extinct in Mauritania, range restricted in Guinea (mainly to Kiang West) and Liberia but is still locally common where good habitat remains elsewhere in this region. In central and east Africa, the Bateleur may be found in northern Cameroon, southern Niger, southern Chad, southern Sudan, South Sudan, northern Central African Republic, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, western Somalia, northern, eastern and southern Democratic Republic of the Congo and a majority of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

This species has long been known to be declining rather pronouncedly in overall population and it is mostly confined to protected areas today.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Breeding

Bateleurs are long-lived species, slow-maturing, slow-breeding species, Bateleurs court each other or re-establish existing pair bonds what is considered, a "spectacular" courtship display. During the courtship display, an exaggerated flight is undertaken, in that the male dives down at the female who rolls to present him her claws.

Very infrequently, a male Bateleur may make a 360 degree lateral roll, accompanied by loud whup-whup noises, at times display may involve 2 males with a single female, but during breeding only one male is usually actively courting. The Bateleur is usually rather monogamous and likely, with the survivorship of each mate, mates for life.

In crisis

It is in life history, a rather peculiar bird of prey with a free-wheeling generalist diet that includes much carrion but also tends to hunt a wide range of live prey, among them many small to unexpectedly relatively large mammals and reptiles along with generally relatively small birds. Despite being a rather aggressive bird in other contexts, bateleurs are easily flushed from their own nest, making them exceptionally vulnerable to nest predators, among them humans, and nest failures. Currently the IUCN classifies the Bateleur as an Endangered species due primarily to anthropogenic causes such as habitat destruction, pesticide usage and persecution.

Per estimates from the 1990s, extrapolated from an average of 150 km2 (58 sq mi) per pair, it was projected that the total population could have been around 180,000 birds among them young ones. Currently, the IUCN estimates broadly from 10,000 to 100,000 total individuals.

CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.

Bateleur is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Bateleur, Wikidata item Q726387. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.