Karura Forest #55: Royal Raptor
This is the 1st in a mini-series of 6 caches celebrating the September 2016 nesting of this stunning bird in Karura Forest between Junctions 23 and 24 on the Mau Mau Trail. You may be lucky to hear and see the bird pair calling as they circle high above this eastern part of the forest.
The cache, a small (~500mL) screw-capped camo-pot, is hidden under bark pieces and leaves in the fork of a multi-trunked tree about 10m off the north side of the Wangari Maathai trail which runs the width of this mid-northern part of the forest. Because of cloud cover and trees, GPSr accuracy was only around 8-9m at GZ.
To reach the cache location: enter the forest at the Shark's Gate (Gate C) on Kiambu Road @ S 01 14.395 E 36 50.644. After parking, pay the entry fee and then proceed north-west straight down the Wangari Maathai Trail to the cache location.
See here for a detailed map of Karura & Sigiria Forests and check GC4PD3V Karura Forest #1: Intro, info & entry for background info on the forest, opening times, entry fees, etc.
The (African) crowned eagle, also called the crowned hawk-eagle (Stephanoaetus 
coronatus) is a large bird of prey found in sub-Saharan Africa (see Distribution Map in Gallery). Its is found mainly in riparian woodlands and various forests.
At least 90 per cent of the diet is mammalian with the main prey showing pronounced regional differences but including small ungulates (eg. bushbuck, duiker, suni), rock hyrax and small primates such as monkeys. It is ferocious, has unusually large talons and strong hindlegs, and can kill by crushing the skull.
Although its long tail gives it an overall length up to 92cm, it is less massive and has a shorter wingspan than Africa's largest eagle, the martial eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus). But it is considered Africa's most powerful eagle when measured in terms of the weight of its prey items which exceptionally can weighing up to 30kg - usually much less.
Thanks to its bold and highly conspicuous behaviour, it is exceptionally well-studied for a large, forest-dwelling eagle. Due to a relatively high level of habitat adaptability, it was until recently considered to be faring well by the standards of large, forest-dependent raptors. However, now it is decreasing far more than before due to the widespread epidemic destruction of native tropical African forest.
See here for more information.
Continues with GC6V3XY Karura Forest #56: King of the Skies.