Bateleur

The Bateleur is generally silent, but can produce a variety of barks and screams. The bird spends a considerable amount of time on the wing, particularly in low-altitude glides. "Bateleur" is French for "tumbler". This name implies the bird's characteristic habit of rocking its wings or tilting action from side to side when gliding, as if catching its balance. The wings are held in a slightly bent, deep 'V', position and fast flight with. Bateleurs hunt from swift, direct gliding flight across country, or in wide sweeping circles. The Bateleur is a territorial bird and will defend its territory by means of an aggressive attack flight pattern shown to intruding conspecifics. Intruders to whom this behavior is displayed always submit and submission is shown by retreating to a safe upper boundary (elevation). Males and females both display this behavior in all stages of the breeding cycle. This behavior is mainly shown to members of the same sex and particularly to non-adults, as it is thought that they may have a greater ability to take over another bird's territory (having greater competitive ability for limited food resources). In the wild Bateleurs are shy of man and sensitive to disturbance at the nest, easily abandoning the structure. In captivity, however, they becomes unusually tame. Bateleur eagles are among a group of raptors that secrete a clear, salty fluid from their nares whilst eating. According to Schmidt-Nielson's (1964) hypothesis, this is due to the general necessity for birds to use an extrarenal mechanism of salt secretion to aid water reabsorption.

The range of the Bateleur spreads across Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania. The bird's range has diminished significantly in recent decades, possibly due to poisoning, and as such has been confined mostly to conservation areas such as national wildlife parks. In April 2012, a juvenile Bateleur was seen in Algeciras in southern Spain. This was the first European record for the Bateleur.

The Bateleur is considered to have a lifespan about 27 years. The annual adult survival rate is estimated at 95%, while the annual juvenile survival rate is estimated at 75%. Average sex ratios remain 1:1. Global population is estimated in the tens of thousands at 10,000 to 100,000 individuals. Like the martial eagle, the Bateleur is reasonably common in conservation areas and scarce elsewhere. In 2009, the Bateleur was placed in the Endangered IUCN Red List category due to loss of habitat, pesticides, capture for international trade and nest disturbance. Decline of the species and the reduction in range is suspected to have been moderately rapid over the past three generations. In South Africa and Namibia the Bateleur has been labelled as a "Vulnerable/Endangered" species, most likely from being trapped, for its feathers to be used in medicine by traditional healers for predicting future events. The population has also decreased due to it feasting on poisoned animal carcasses being left out for other species. The Bateleur's wide foraging areas and their ability to locate very small pieces of carrion, makes them highly susceptible to poison-laced carcasses even from a small proportion of farmers who use poisons. No large scale actions are underway but they are possibly protected in Yemen as an endangered species. It is proposed to implement education and awareness campaigns across its range to reduce the use of poisoned baits. Regular population monitoring is being carried out.