Field Notes
The short-toed snake-eagle earns its name honestly: it hunts reptiles, quartering low and hovering over open ground before dropping onto a snake below. Pale-headed and large-eyed, it has a searching, almost owlish gaze.
I have photographed them around Bangalore and at Bhigwan, often hanging in the air as they scan the scrub. Watching one hover heavily and then plunge is one of the more dramatic sights in raptor photography — and one of the harder moments to time.
