A resident bird of Cyprus and the Akamas peninsula. It’s the largest eagle that lives and breeds on the island, with a wingspan of 145-165 cm. It’s observed either singly or frequently in pairs, flying high and patrolling its territory, or lower over the hilltops and ridges, where it tries to achieve a surprise attack on its prey.

The pairs often hunt together cooperatively, with one individual flying higher to spot and flush the potential prey and the second individual flying lower to accomplish the surprise attack.

It preys on a wide range of prey, mainly smallish to medium sized mammals (rats, hares, young foxes etc.) and birds (chukars, woodpigeons, corvids etc.), while in winter it can feed occasionally on dead animals.It nests mostly on inaccessible sites with steep cliffs, gorges etc. and less frequently on large trees, making huge nests, that can be used for many years, even for generations.

It’s a medium-large sized eagle, dark above and a whitish belly with black vertical spotting. When in flight it looks like having a white body with contrasty black underwings, while on the upperparts it shows a characteristic white patch on the neck. The juvenile – young bird has more brownish coloring (brown back and brownish-red underparts).