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Tawny Eagles are large raptors, but only medium-sized when compared with other eagles. The body plumage is mostly rufous. The upperwings are dark-brown, mottled with rufous; the primary flight feathers are black. The species does not have strong characteristic features which can make identification in the field difficult. On top of that, although there are no defined different morphs, there is substantial colour variation, ranging from pale-buff to dark-brown. Both sexes have yellowish irises. The bill is grey with a black tip and a yellow cere and an orange gape that reaches to below the centre of the eye. If observed in the field, the combination of yellowish iris and orange gape reaching to below the eye identifies the species.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Tawny Eagle is available HERE .

There are at present considered to be 3 extant races of the Tawny Eagle. The ranges of the individual races are to some degrees uncertain. Race rapax is nominally found south of the equator in southern Africa, i.e. southward of Uganda and central Kenya. There are few reports from the Congo Basin, which means that the species is mostly found in the eastern African highlands, down to South Africa. Race belisarius resides northward of that, basically in sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal to Somalia, Djibuti and Eritrea. This race is also established along the Red Sea coastal fringe from southern Yemen to southern Saudi Arabia. From there birds may disperse along the eastern coastal fringe of Arabia. There is another population along the African West coast, up to Morocco and Algeria. The transition between these two races, and thereby intergradation between them, is not well-understood. Race vindhiana includes all Tawny Eagles found in Asia, i.e. outside Africa and the Arabian peninsula, with a distribution ranging from southern Iran, via Pakistan, into large parts of the Indian subcontinent. The distribution reaches farthest to the East along the southern fringes of the Himalaya mountain range, into the catchment of the Brahmaputra river.

In Oman Tawny Eagles are only seen as vagrants. Sightings in Arabia, away from their breeding range in the border region of southern Saudi Arabia and southern Yemen, are usually along the peninsula's eastern coastal fringe, so along the migration path of other, migratory species.

Tawny Eagles are mostly found in open semi-arid to arid, but well-wooded savannah to steppe country, often near mountains.

Race "belisarius"