[3][14] This relationship was well borne-out by a genetic study that found that this species and the short-toed snake eagle (Circaetus gallicus) form a monophyletic clade, based on nucleotide sequences in the cytochrome b gene.

[15] Even though, when contrasted with snake eagles, bateleurs appear to differ greatly in plumage patterns, the two genera show certain similarities in food, feeding behavior, and breeding biology.

[13] However, Lerner and Mindell (2005), based on the molecular sequence from two mitochondrial genes and one nuclear intron, indicated a previously unsuspected close relationship of the bateleur with similarly "aberrant" but extremely different, in nearly every respect of appearance and life history, member of the Circaetinae, the Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi).

The head of the juvenile bateleur is paler and tawnier than elsewhere on its body while the eyes are brown, the cere a rather unique greenish-blue and the feet whitish in colour.

By far the largest of the subfamily is the Philippine eagle which is more than twice as massive and is far larger in all aspects of measurement than the bateleur, with a drastically differing structure (broad, relatively short wings, very long legs and tail).

[32] The bateleur evidences some sexual dimorphism in favour of the female as is expected in raptorial birds but this size difference is fairly minimal relative to many other accipitrids, averaging up to about 6%.

[5][7] Even the black-chested and the rather slight Beaudouin's snake eagle (Circaetus beaudouinii) are sometimes considered potentially confusable with juvenile bateleurs, but both of these respective species are rather uniform and darker brown ventrally and about the head and much paler dorsally, with a highly different contrasting whitish cream colour below.

[1][38][39][40] It is possibly extinct in Mauritania, range restricted in Guinea (mainly to Kiang West) and Liberia but is still locally common where good habitat remains elsewhere in this region.

[5] Although often in fairly dry savanna habitats, in Kenya it is reportedly absent from areas where the rainfall is under 250 mm (9.8 in) annually, probably because it limits the growth of the leafy trees that they require for nesting.

[5] This is supported in Zimbabwe, where the bateleur is relatively common but appears to largely avoid the extensive amount of hilly and rugged areas present in that country.

[5][10][20] Engaged in its aforementioned dihedral flight it is often cants continuously from side-to-side, likely the origin of which it was given its common name (loosely "tumbler", "balancer" or "tightrope walker") of French derivation.

[5] Typical home ranges of around 40 km2 (15 sq mi) were reported per pair in Kruger National Park and these were considered unusually small by overall species standards.

[69] Generally, as in most raptors found as breeding residents in Africa, the bateleur is considered sedentary and territorial but it is a species that requires very large home ranges.

[73] Bateleurs seem to devote an exceptional amount of time to thermoregulation frequently spending much of its day variously sunning, to warm up, and bathing, to cool off.

This species generally forages from the flight, flying mostly low and straight whilst scanning the ground, periodically banking and retracing sections of the track when possible foods are spotted.

[5][23] Bateleurs may spend up to 8–9 hours or up to 80% of daylight on the wing, perhaps largely for hunting and foraging purposes, and have reported having even covered as much as 300 to 500 km (190 to 310 mi) in a single day.

[5][7] These piratical attacks are sometimes carried out against large carrion eaters like vultures and even against larger eagles, and in them, they may drive their target to the ground, with interlocking talons or trading shallow blows with their feet.

Beyond carrion, the Kruger food study found that 16.4% of the total diet consisted of unidentified live mammals, 3.73% each by assorted dove species and lilac-breasted rollers (Coracias caudatus), 3% by glossy starlings and 1.6% by skinks.

[79][80] In compilation studies, the most often fed-on ungulates by bateleurs that were identified to species were reported to be impala and steenbok (Raphicerus campestris), at 4.2% and 2.2% of the total foods, respectively .

[7][23][79][93] Much other similar avian prey, commonly those weighing around 80 to 300 g (2.8 to 10.6 oz), including a surprising diversity of nightjars (perhaps since they are prone to end up as roadkill due to their predilection for resting on roads by night) and shorebirds like lapwings, other plovers, sandpipers and terns in addition to kingfishers (up to the size of the giant kingfisher (Megaceryle maxima)), rollers, hoopoes, small hornbills, parakeets and some passerines, usually those with a conspicuous presence on the savanna such as shrikes, weavers and starlings.,[7][34][33][46][79][84][94][95][96] Unlike many other eagles of similar or larger size, there are few instances of waterfowl or large waders (i.e. heron, storks, flamingoes, etc.)

[7][79][80] The largest typical avian prey tends to be assorted gamebirds, with most common guineafowl, spurfowl and francolin, smaller available species of bustard and some quail known in their diet.

[7] Sizable, and far from defenseless, if not venomous reptiles known in the prey spectrum may include monitor lizards including Nile (Varanus niloticus) and savannah monitors (Varanus exanthematicus), some terrapins and tortoises and African rock pythons (Python sebae), although excepting small, young ones, these types of reptilian prey are perhaps in many cases consumed after they are already deceased, such as via roadkills.

However, due to their smaller size, the tawny eagle and especially the bateleur can begin foraging for carrion earlier in the morning, while the vultures must wait for updrafts to undertake flight.

A further chasing flight reported is not necessarily nuptial and may be performed by birds of the same size and by an adult or an immature and in some cases is linked to the sociality of the species.

[5][7][51][52] Their eggs are quite large for the size of the bird, being broadly oval and usually an unspotted chalky white but sometimes with a few red stains or indistinct reddish markings, which may be cosmetic from feeding and defecating of the parents.

[10][125] When the nest is approached, at times bateleurs will react forcibly, engaging in aggressive barks, sometimes diving down from flight at the intruder with loud flapping wings.

[7] At 4 nests in Zimbabwe, a replacement rate of 0.81 young per pair per annum, with local figures often being higher where they live more free from human disturbance.

[142] Additionally, shrinking habitat has been found to be a prevalent threat to bateleurs due largely to expanding human settlements and intensifying livestock agriculture.

[13][63] A further effect from humans is regular disturbance at bateleur nests, although not typically as deliberate as many other threats, this is causing the breeding success rates to plummet farther.

[147][148] In East and Central Africa, the bateleur has been referred to variously as gawarakko and nkona and in the Lake Tanganyika was considered an essential possession of sultans whether the birds were dead or alive.