The tail is ashy grey with a broad black tip and three to four narrower dark bars.

The underparts are white, with heavy dark brown spots and blotches on the breast and belly, becoming sparser on thighs and vent.

The under-wing coverts are brown marked with white, the under side of flight feathers is dark and heavily barred lacking any noticeable grey patch.

[5] It shares white "landing lights" at the fore of the wings with the similarly sized booted eagle but that species is usually rather differently marked overall (either paler and browner or all dark in dark morphs) and also similarly sized black sparrowhawks are mentioned as a confusion species but sparrowhawks are rather differently proportioned with bare, dull green-yellow legs.

[6][5] The Ayres's hawk-eagle is a medium-sized raptor but quite a small eagle, about the weight of a peregrine falcon albeit with a slightly greater length and wingspan more akin to a common buzzard, with a total length of 44 to 57 cm (17 to 22 in) and has a wingspan of 106 to 137 cm (3 ft 6 in to 4 ft 6 in).

[5] The species thus manifests quite strong sexual dimorphism in favor of the female, which does not overlap in standard measurements with the smaller male.

It may then enter towns in South Africa to prey mainly on doves and feral pigeons.

[4] It tends to occur around woodlands of Brachystegia and Baikiaea in the core south-central African part of their distribution.

[5] It is not typically a forest dwelling species and prefers mature woodland among often irregular, rocky terrain.

Other than birds it has been recorded as catching a few mammals including bush squirrels, and fruit bats.

[5] However, it quite commonly takes heavier birds than in the aforementioned weight range, including rock pigeons and African grey hornbills.