Spilornis cheela

The snake eagle has a white forehead, a black head, and white feather bases; there is a large and prominent black feather crest on the occiput, which is usually spread out in a fan shape, with white horizontal spots on it. The upper body is grayish brown to dark brown, with narrow white or light brown feather edges. The upper tail coverts have white tips. The tail is black, with a broad white or grayish white central transverse band and a narrow white tip. The small coverts on the wings are The feathers are brown or dark brown with white spots, and the flight feathers are black with white end spots and light brown horizontal spots. The throat and chest are gray-brown or black with light or dark beetle-like spots; the rest of the lower body is gray-yellow or tan with rich white round fine spots. The skin of the underwing coverts and axillary feathers is yellowish brown, also covered with white round fine spots.
The young bird's head and feather crown are white with black tips, t

Origin: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam.
Migrant birds: South Korea, Singapore.
Distributed in Liaoning, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Hainan and other places in China. There are 4 subspecies in China, among which the Yunnan subspecies is found in western Yunnan and Medog, Tibet, and is a resident bird; the Southeast Asian species is distributed in most parts of China, is a stray bird in Liaoning, and is a resident bird in other places; the Taiwan subspecies is a Chinese endemic subspecies, only distributed in Taiwan, and is also a resident bird; the Hainan subspecies is also a Chinese endemic subspecies, and is a resident bird only distributed in Hainan. All subspecies are uncommon.
The snake eagle inhabits and moves in mountain forests and open areas at the edge of the forest, alone or in

The Crested Serpent-eagle is a large or medium-sized eagle with 21 subspecies.

Snake eagles often choose clear weather to fly, flying alone or in small groups with rising hot air currents into the air and spreading their wings. At this time, under the slightly forward-leaning wide and long wings, a white horizontal band is clearly visible, and a loud and rising long whistle sound "Huliu...Huliu..." is emitted, which is the main feature for field identification. When the weather is bad, they rarely move, often staying in groups on dead trees or dense forests.

The call of the snake eagle is desolate. It mainly feeds on various snakes, and also eats lizards, frogs, mice, birds and crustaceans. The snake eagle is a precious large bird of prey, and spring is the season for snake eagles to incubate eggs. Snakes are difficult to catch. Because of their slender and slippery bodies, it is not easy to catch them. Moreover, after catching a part of the snake, the other parts of the snake will turn around and wrap around it. Its huge wrapping force often suffocates the adventurer to death. If it is a venomous snake, it also has a pair of fangs that are difficult to resist, which makes many attackers stay away. Therefore, animals that feed exclusively on snakes are rare. The tarsus and plantars of the snake eagle are covered with hard scales, which are closely connected like small shields, and can resist the attack of the snake's fangs; the wide wings and rich feathers on its body can also block the attack of the snake; its toes are thick and short, which can effectively grasp the slippery body of the snake, making it difficult for it to escape. Therefore, it is difficult for the snake to fight back against the snake eagle after it is captured. This is the main reason why the snake eagle can become an expert in catching snakes.

The way the snake eagle catches and eats snakes is very peculiar. It first stands on a high place, or hovers in the air to peek at the ground. After discovering the snake, it quietly falls from a high place, grabs the snake body with its claws, clamps the snake head with its sharp mouth, and supports itself on the ground with its wings open to maintain stability. Many larger snakes will not surrender, and often roll and twist frantically, trying to wrap the body or wings of the snake eagle with their still movable bodies. The snake eagle was not in a hurry. It continued to hold the snake's head and body, while flapping its wings from time to time to get rid of the snake's counterattack. It started to swallow the snake only when it gradually lost its strength and ability to resist fiercely.

Since snake eagles mostly swallow the snakes whole after catching them without tearing them apart, their beaks are not as developed as other birds of prey. But its jaw muscles are very strong, and it can bite the snake's head into pieces, and then swallow the snake's head first, then the snake's body, and finally the snake's tail. In the season of feeding chicks, adult birds do not swallow the whole snake after catching it, and often leave the snake's tail outside their mouths so that after returning to the nest, the chicks can hold this section of the tail and then pull out the whole snake's body to eat.

After swallowing a snake, the snake eagle often stops to rest for a while, and at the same time makes a very strange movement: first, it faces the direction of the sun, constantly sticks out its chest and raises its head, staring at the sun with a dull look, just like the expression of a person who is choked while eating. This is because the snake eagle has to raise its head and chest to resist the twisting of the snake body that has been swallowed but not completely dead in its abdomen, and it has to use its chest muscles to inhibit the movement of the snake body, and at the same time expand its own trachea to avoid suffocation.

The breeding season of the snake eagle is from April to June. It nests on the branches at the top of tall trees in the forest. The nest is made of dead branches and is disc-shaped. Each nest lays one egg, which is white with slight red spots. The size of the egg is 66.3-73.1 mm × 54-58.2 mm. The female bird incubates the eggs, and the incubation period is 35 days. The chicks mature late, and after hatching, they are raised by their parents until they can fly after about 60 days.

The ancient Chinese called the snake eagle "鸩", and because many of the snakes it eats are highly poisonous, it was also mistaken for a poisonous bird. Soaking its feathers in wine can make poisonous wine, so there is an idiom "drinking 鸩 to quench thirst", which is a metaphor for only caring about the present and not worrying about the future. "Han Shu Qi Dao Hui Wang Biography" has a record: "The queen mother was angry, so she asked people to pour two cups of 鸩 wine in front of the king of Qi to celebrate his birthday." Yan Shigu's note quoted Ying Shao as saying: "The 鸩 bird has a black body and red eyes and eats vipers and wild kudzu. It paints its feathers in wine, and it will die immediately after drinking it." Li Shizhen recorded in the bird section of "Compendium of Materia Medica" that its feathers are highly poisonous. Entering the five internal organs, rotting and killing people. However, modern science has proved that these claims are absurd.

Listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2016 ver 3.1 - Least Concern (LC).

Listed in Appendix I, II and III of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) 2019 edition Appendix II.

Listed in China's National List of Key Protected Wildlife (February 5, 2021) at level II.

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