Martial or Black-chested Snake Eagle

[Atravelynn]

 

Nyerere/Selous.  I believe my guide said Black-chested Snake Eagle.  Could it be Martial instead for the next 2 shots?  Thanks for your assistance!

 

 

 

 

 

This last shot is definitely a Black-chested Snake Eagle, taken on a different day from the above 2 shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AndrewB]

Well @Atravelynn- I have been waiting for someone to chip in on this one as I am not certain.

But, I think your first two shots are probably a Martial Eagle. My reasons being the beak, so big and hooked and that both your shots seem to show some spotting on the white breast feathers which would indicate your hunch is correct.

[inyathi]

@Atravelynn

 

I agree with @AndrewBI think the bird in the first two shots is two big and powerful looking to be a Black-chested Snake Eagle, and there are clearly spots on the those few white breast feathers that you can see, that rules out the snake eagle, the size of the beak, is I would say also conclusive, here's a shot of a Martial taken in Kidepo NP, I'd say the beak is a clear match for your bird. 

 

Martial eagle, Narus Valley, Kidepo National Park, Uganda by inyathi, on Flickr

 

I don't have any good enough shots of Black-chested Snake Eagles, but the website Tanzanian Birds and Butterflies has good shots of both species, here's a link Black-chested Snake-eagle, scroll down and on the bottom of the last photo it says "click to see more" when you click that, a separate box will come up, with a whole selection of additional photos, if you either return to this topic or just open one of your eagle photos, then find the box of photos from Tanzanian Birds, it will have disappeared down onto your toolbar at the bottom, I'm using Chrome, if you put the mouse on the Chrome icon, you will see the photo box there, click on it and you can then have it open on top of this topic or your photo, and can drag it into position for a side by side comparison, it presents the photos as a slide show, wait until a nice profile shot of the snake eagle appears, run the mouse over it and press pause. If you do that, you will see the difference in beak size very clearly.

Edited March 9 by inyathi

[ForWildlife]

Martial eagle imo. Check the tail. The tail of a martial eagle protrudes barely past the wings, while the tail of a black-chested snake eagle protrudes quite a bit usually.

The size of the claws is also an indicator, but size is always difficult to interpret correctly from a distance.  

[Atravelynn]

Good, that's what I thought.  Martial Eagle.  I thought the guide said Black-chested Snake Eagle, but I could be wrong on that.

[Peter Connan]

And the legs appear to be feathered.

 

Martial, almost no doubt in my mind.