A rare island raptor that looks like a classic eagle drawn with a highlighter pen for contrast. It’s a medium-to-large bird of prey, with dark chocolate-brown upperparts, a brown tail crossed by six pale bars, and strikingly white underparts and head streaked with fine brown lines. In flight, it shows a bold, diagnostic feature: a clean white patch on the upperside of the wings where the inner flight feathers are, like someone painted a white window into each wing—something birdwatchers use to separate it from other hawk-eagles. Unlike many relatives, it lacks a head crest, so the head looks smooth and rounded rather than spiky.

This eagle lives only in Indonesia’s Lesser Sunda Islands, especially Flores, Sumbawa and Lombok, plus a few small nearby islands like Komodo, Rinca, Satonda and Alor. It’s a forest raptor through and through, favouring tropical lowland and foothill rainforests but also using submontane forest up to about 1,600 m when lowland habitat has been heavily cut. You’re most likely to see it soaring over the canopy along ridges and valley slopes, or perched quietly near a forest edge watching for prey.

Very little is known about its diet, but, like other Nisaetus hawk-eagles, it’s thought to hunt birds, lizards, snakes and small mammals. There are scattered reports of individuals carrying rails, attacking large flying foxes and taking snakes, all in line with a powerful forest hunter that launches from a perch to surprise whatever passes beneath. Its call is described as a loud, shrill whistle drawn out over several seconds—more of a piercing scream than a short “ki-ki-ki.”

Distribution

Country

Population est.

Status

Year

Comments

Indonesia

320-1,500

Official estimate

EN

2024

Lesser Sunda Is.