Southern banded snake-eagle also known as the East African snake eagle is a species of snake eagle in the family of Accipitridae found in the eastern Sub-Saharan Africa. As its name suggests, the southern banded snake eagle mainly eats snakes hunting from a perch, scanning the surroundings for prey. If a large snake is caught, it is torn up into bite-size pieces before feeding; however, smaller snakes are swallowed whole, head-first. It has also been recorded feeding on lizards, frogs and termite alates.

The nest is constructed by both sexes and is an open platform of small sticks roughly 50–70 cm wide with an inner cup which is 17 cm across and is lined with fresh foliage. The nest is normally placed in the main fork of a tree. The single egg is laid from August–October and is mainly incubated by the female for about 50 days, although the male may take over for short stints early on in the incubation period. Both parents feed the young on a diet of ripped up snakes. At first the male does the majority of the hunting, while the female looks after the nestling.

  Few days ago this Southern banded snake-eagle was rescued from drowning in a septic tank at Gede ruins with an injury on the bill on the lower mandible. The bill was severely bruised and this made feeding a huge difficulty. At A Rocha Kenya the bird was kept captive for supervision and close monitoring. On November, 12 The bird   took a flight to Kenya Birds of prey Centre in Soysambu for a surgery to  get  the lower mandible fixed. We continue  to pray for the quick recovery from the surgery. We are yearning for the day when we will release the bird at  Gede Ruins having fully recovered from the surgery with a satellite tracker on.

Many thanks to our partners who diligently collaborated to see to it that this bird would make it alive till this moment, the Global primate Foundation for giving us the heads up about this bird, The Kenya Wildlife Service, Watamu, Gede Ruins the Kenya birds of prey Trust  and A Rocha Kenya for the effort that they have pulled through to see to it that bird recovers.

Why should we care for birds of prey??, birds of prey are apex predators and play an important ecological role in maintaining the environmental health of their natural habitats. Their hunting habits remove old, sick, and weak animals from prey populations and help keep their numbers under control. It is indeed a great venture to protect the birds of prey from harm as they play an important role in the ecosystem. Creation care is part of the great works that A Rocha is dedicated to do and we love involving the community to participate in various ways like donating to support our work using the link  https://arocha.org/en/give/ or volunteer with us and participate in our activities and events.