Habits
The Black Eagle eats mammals, birds and eggs. It is a prolific nest-predator and is known for its slow flight just over the canopy. Due to this eagle's ability to remain aloft for long periods with minimal effort, the Lepcha people of India's Darjeeling District described it as a bird that never sat down. The curved claws and wide gape allow it to pick up eggs of birds from nests. Along with Swallow-tailed Kites they share the unique habit of carrying away an entire nest with nestlings to a feeding perch. Squirrels, macaques and many species of birds emit alarm calls when these birds are spotted soaring over the forest. The Indian Giant Squirrel has been noted as a prey of this species and young Bonnet Macaques may also fall prey to them.
The courtship display involves steep dives with folded wings with swoops up in a U shape into a vertical stall. They build a platform nest, 3 to 4 feet wide, on a tall tree overlooking a steep valley. One or two white eggs which are blotched in brown and mauve may be laid during the nesting season between January and April. The nest site may be reused year after year.
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Famous quotes containing the word habits:
“Long accustomed to the use of European manufactures, [the Cherokee Indians] are as incapable of returning to their habits of skins and furs as we are, and find their wants the less tolerable as they are occasioned by a war [the American Revolution] the event of which is scarcely interesting to them.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
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—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)