---
title: "Crested Serpent-Eagle"
description: "Spilornis cheela — Uccelli. The crested serpent eagle (Spilornis cheela) is a medium-sized bird of prey that is found in forested habitats across tropical Asia."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/it/animal/crested-serpent-eagle
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Crested Serpent-Eagle

> Spilornis cheela — Uccelli. The crested serpent eagle (Spilornis cheela) is a medium-sized bird of prey that is found in forested habitats across tropical Asia.

- Scientific name: *Spilornis cheela*
- Category: `birds` (Uccelli)
- Habitats: `forest` (Foresta), `jungle` (Giungla)
- iNaturalist observations: 15875
- Wikidata: [Q431212](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q431212)
- iNaturalist taxon: [5158](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/5158)

## Names

- en: Crested Serpent-Eagle
- de: Schlangenweihe
- es: Culebrera chiíla
- fr: Serpentaire bacha
- nl: Indische slangenarend
- pt: Águia-serpentária-de-crista
- pl: Wężojad czubaty

## Countries with the most observations

TW (5419), IN (3137), MY (1748), LK (982), TH (656), ID (610), HK (580), CN (422), JP (209), NP (209), VN (154), SG (126)

## Summary

The crested serpent eagle (Spilornis cheela) is a medium-sized bird of prey that is found in forested habitats across tropical Asia. Within its widespread range across the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and East Asia, there are considerable variations and some authorities prefer to treat several of its subspecies as completely separate species. In the past, several species including the Philippine serpent eagle (S. holospila), Andaman serpent eagle (S. elgini) and South Nicobar serpent eagle (S. klossi) were treated as subspecies of the crested serpent eagle. All members within the species complex have a large…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crested_serpent_eagle

## Photo

![Crested Serpent-Eagle](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/crested-serpent-eagle/medium.jpg)

Photo: Dario Taraborelli · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/347646541

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/crested-serpent-eagle?lang=it` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).