Whilst in Tabuk in early October, Phil
Roberts and I came across a number of Steppe Eagles of various ages. We saw at
least five different birds and managed to get good flight views of at least
three birds shown below. It is difficult to know if these birds will winter in
the area or move south to cross into Africa via the Bab El Mandib straights in
Yemen. Steppe Eagle is a common migrant and winter visitor to the south-west,
northern Hejaz and Central Arabia where up to 1000 birds have been recorded in
a small area. They breed from the Black Sea eastwards across central Asia to
Mongolia and migrate to winter south to southern Africa and southern Asia. They
pass through the Middle East in large numbers on migration. The juvenile birds
shown below have wide even width whitish bands on the trailing edges and centre
of the underwings and on the tail tip. They also have a uniformly coloured body
and wing-coverts and whitish under-tail coverts. Whitish tips to the greater
upperwing coverts and secondaries form bands across, and trailing edges to, the
upperwings. They also have whitish uppertail coverts. The adult seen had dark
brown underwings with blackish carpal patches with wide dark terminal bands on
the flight feathers. They do not have the whitish underwing bands of younger
birds. Head, body and under-tail coverts are uniform dark brown.
