The Breeding Biology of Aquila verreauxi Lesson

Abstract

Summary. The breeding behaviour of a family of Verreaux's Eagles at Mbulu, north‐central Tanganyika Territory, was watched, with the aid of African observers, for over 1000 hours during the later part of one breeding‐season and the whole of the next. These observations throw light on the extent of the hunting‐range, the breeding‐season, clutch‐size, incubation and fledging periods, the relative shares of the parents in incubation and in brooding and feeding the young, calls, enmity with a leopard, relations with other birds, the use of green twigs, maltreatment and death of the younger chick, the quantity and nature of prey and its preparation, the nestling's meals and fasts, the possible occurrence of the “starve‐out” process, the eaglet's preliminary efforts to leave the nest and maiden flight, and its early life on the wing until the disintegration of the family.