A common visitor to the inter-state Chandigarh region (ISCR) in winter, Steppe Eagle is a muscular bulky bird of prey belonging to the Accipitridae family. Its wingspan is around 2.5 times the body length, which is ideally between 69 cm to 89 cm and it is fair to say a close encounter with it can make you shiver.
The bird’s ideal habitats are foothills, open grasslands and carcass dump. Its identification marks are gap lines extending behind the eye; the juvenile has a broad white bar across the underwing, a double white bar on the upper wing and a white crescent across uppertail coverts.
Dadumajra dumping ground, Sector 38, carcass dump near Ramgarh en route to Morni Hills, certain areas near the Saketri village in Panchkula, Motemajra in Mohali are places where this predatory bird can be seen. It loves to haunt small mammals, including squirrels, heirs, rats and snakes.
It was a fine morning in 2019 when I had my first close encounter with this eagle on the Khol-Hai Raitan bird safari. I was moving towards a cliff when I spotted the bird on the top of the hill. I tried to capture a photo but got only a shot of its upper body. The second time I spotted the bird was at Bandar Ghati in Panchkula sitting on a kikar tree (gum arabic) facing the sun in March 2020. This time I was luckier and got a full-frame click.