| I have tried my hardest to identify all of the following Steppe, Lesser Spotted and Greater Spotted Eagles. However, no doubt some will be incorrectly identified and odd ones may even be hybrids. My experience with these three aquila species was very limited before visiting Batumi in autumn 2014 and it became a very steep learning curve without a summit. As an aquila eagle approaches one of the count stations you are torn between either grilling it in the scope or taking photos of it. Ideally you need to do both if you want to have a reasonable chance of identifying a high percentage of them. Plus at the same time you must not forget that your main objective is to count. I think the above photo may show a rather pale bodied / headed Greater Spotted Eagle but I could be wrong. |
