Greater Spotted Eagle

The greater spotted eagle is a large migratory bird of prey. It breeds across eastern and parts of central Europe, central Russia, central Asia and parts of China, and winters mainly in South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, the upper Mediterranean and parts of East Africa. It favours wetter habitats than most booted eagles, such as floodplains, bogs, lakes and ponds surrounded by woodland (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is an opportunistic forager, especially in winter, scavenging carrion and taking small mammals, frogs, water birds and occasionally reptiles and insects, mostly hunting from concealed perches over marshes or wet fields. It builds stick nests in large trees and lays one to three eggs. It was once in the genus Aquila (Wikipedia, general species account).