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Jis, bro! What more do you need before your finally dump the LSE notion? You could have already done it on the evidence presented by a single large flight feather!

Thanks Lizet.
Fascinating! I never thought of it as an acronym. Just a word birders use like Dip and stringer.
I wonder if it started like that and got corrupted here?
I shall try this out at the next opportunity. Your spelling makes sense.
I can't wait to see some diehards faces when I ask "Did you get the GISS!"

JVR. So you are saying your streaked breasted Steppe does exist? (Don't get me wrong, I agree!)

Maxwell, DD's Steppe Eagle has got a streaked breast... I'll take that one as a "first" example (for me) of a Steppe eagle with a streaked breast. I'd love to see another example or two just because..., but rest assured, I'm 100% comfortable with the ID as it stands.

Jizz is the same term used by birders to describe the overall impression or appearance of a bird based on such features as shape, posture, flying style or other habitual movements, size and colouration.

It is the general impression one gets from observing a bird and one can learn to make a reliable ID in the field at a glance. Jizz is often useful for identifying to the family rather than the species level. Once that penny drops, one can focus on those features required to make the species ID.

I found that this helped me hugely when I visited both Brazil and England; both destinations on very short notice so that I had no time to prepare. However, my feel for African birds helped a lot narrow down the probabilities.

(My first English blackbird i.e. I could describe as a thrush-like and -sized all-black bird with yellow bill and eyering... all that at a glance...)

Anyhow... the origin of the word is actually not known. There is a theory that it comes from the World War II air force acronym GISS for "General Impression of Size and Shape (of an aircraft)", but according to the Oxford English Dictionary the birding term "Jizz" was first recorded earlier than that in 1920.

Thanks for the "gen" on Jizz/Giss. Odd history indeed.
Now if only I knew how to post a picture on here I may have just the one you seek.

Ja Ja ok dankie Oom!!

Thank you so much to everyone for you informative opinions on this Eagle.. I really did learn a couple of new things, which is why I love this hobby so much.. For the last three days I have been googl'ing Steppe's, studying the reference books etc

So... who is in the mood to ID a nightjar?

Bring it on, maybe we can agree to disagree again!

Right.. follow me to the General birds section

Yes. Coolish day out, few migrants moving, Gas men crawling over the house and a normal quiet day at teh office.
Bring it on! There are only six choices anyway. I go for European, sight unseen!

DD's eagle looks like an adult Tawny Eagle to me...

TG

Hi TG,

The neck seems to thick and short and the barred tail?

Also Tawny doesn't have the uniform fully dark underwing like DD's bird has.

I must agree with Tertius. First time I saw Daan's photo I also thought that it was a Tawny Eagle. Tawny Eagles also show a feint barring on the tail and I don't see the gape extending till past the eye. To me it looks like it extends to below the middle of the eye and there is a line (feather streaking or whatever, behind the bill that extends till way past the eye!)

I don't know Matt, maybe I am wrong but it looks pretty consistent to medium morph Tawny to me.

Interesting observation WTM

I have yet to see a pic of barring on a Tawny

I have only seen Steppe Eagle twice in Kruger and that was over the birding weekends in Punda in 2009 and Shimuwini in 2010 (both in the north of Kruger). Both birds were young birds and we were fortunate to see the upper wing pattern and the u-shaped mark on the rump. I've read somewhere that most Steppe Eagles in Africa are immature or juvenile birds. Not that I am saying that chances are slim that you will come across adult birds.