146. Lesser Spotted Eagle (Clanga pomarina)

Lesser Spotted Eagles are pretty uniformly brown in adult plumage, with darker flight feathers and paler whitish patches on the uppertail coverts (visible in the photo), and also a small white patch at the base of the primary flight feathers. The juveniles are the spotted ones, with white-tipped wing feathers and a more extensive white patch on the primaries. They are migratory, breeding in parts of eastern Europe although reaching as far west as Germany and Austria; they winter in Africa. Their preferred habitat is damp forests with clearings, usually lowland, and also sometimes grassland outside of the breeding season.

Lesser Spotted Eagle, ©Radovan Václav, via Flickr Creative Commons.

Lesser Spotted Eagle painting.

Quite pleased with this one! Got a new square-format sketchbook so hopefully no more going off the edges too...