black eagle (verreaux's eagle)- Aquila verreauxii
Large black eagle with white 'V' on the back. In flight has characteristic narrow-based wings with white 'flashes' at the base of the primaries. Usually silent. Pairs are found in mountains, rocky hills and gorges, usually perched on rocks or flying at no great height.


reference: Newman's Birds of Southern Africa


black eagle being tormented by a pied crow!


This is the female of a breeding pair of black eagle nesting on a hill-top at Walter Sisulu Botanical Garden Johannesburg. A pair of pied crow were seen trying to intimidate these black eagles. sometimes table turns and the eagle starts giving these crows a hiding.
There is a single chick in the nest and the eagles were seen bringing fresh tree branches full of green leaves to layer up there nest apparently to cover the dirt and other stuff accumulated.