[4] In winter, though less closely studied than during breeding, the steppe eagle is remarkable for its sluggish and almost passive feeding ecology, focusing on insect swarms, landfills, carrion and the semi-altricial young of assorted animals, lacking the bold and predatory demeanor of their cousin species.

[7][28] A fossil species, Aquila nipaloides, has been found in Italy, Corsica, Sardinia and France and was hypothesized to most closely related to the steppe eagle based on osteology of the ramus (although did evidence some differences in leg morphology).

From the end of the 3rd year to when they obtain adult plumage, the eagles tend to have adult-like broad blackish trailing edges and tail often coupled with dark-barred grey base to black fingers and traces of the pale band along greater underwing-coverts.

They occur broadly in the season in several central and southern parts of the Arabian Peninsula as well as regularly in eastern Iraq and western Iran with odd ones north to Turkey and Georgia.

[65][66] Other nations to host wintering steppe eagles include Yemen, Azerbaijan and Syria as well as, albeit rarely doing so, in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Kuwait.

Nations known to be visited by steppe eagles almost exclusively in migratory passage include Egypt, most but not all of Syria, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan and much of east China from Tuquan County to about Xiamen.

[1] Points of migration bottleneck, where large numbers of steppe eagles are frequently recorded, are known in areas including Israel, especially around Eilat, Suez (in Egypt), Bab-el-Mandeb (in Yemen), some parts of the nation of Georgia and, in the Himalayan region, especially within Nepal but also sometimes en masse in Pakistan and northern India.

[4] Most members of the species breed at lower levels but largely in eastern part of the range also will nest in poorly vegetated dry rocky hillsides such as granite massifs and upland valleys, though generally avoid truly mountainous areas.

[4][14] Besides the obvious breeding pair, they often flock during migration and aggregate in occasionally ample numbers during non-breeding times, usually at fruitful feeding sites, sometimes briefly cooperating with one another especially to klepoparasitize other birds of prey.

[4] It usually ends in late November to December but steppe eagles frequently travel somewhat nomadically while not breeding and so individuals may not reach their winter terminus point until about January.

[134] It was indicated based on the directional studies that especially juveniles from the eastern part of the breeding may be more frequently migrate westbound to reach wintering areas such as the Middle East and Africa.

[4][13][14] Various other small or medium-sized mammals can become the most significant prey locally on the breeding grounds, such as voles, pikas and zokors and, generally more secondarily, marmots, hares, gerbils, hedgehogs and others.

[12][34] The breeding steppe eagle mainly hunts in a low soaring or gliding flight, at a maximum of 200 m (660 ft), diving or making short, accelerated stoops onto their prey.

[141] Steppe eagles have been recorded in both Kazakhstan and Mongolia to tactfully avoid casting a shadow before descending onto prey and may drop stones to provide a distraction, a probable form of tool use.

However, this species has plummeted in population density, in Kalmykia for instance going down from abundant in diverse habitats to perhaps locally extinct before gradually trickling back up in numbers (which continue to be a mere shadow of what they once were).

[10][153][154] However, some report in the Altai region that the main prey is the long-tailed ground squirrel and the migration arrival times do seem to correspond closely with this species hibernation emergence period.

[157][150] A few reptiles found in the diet around nest have included at least sand lizard (Lacerta agilis), Caspian whipsnake (Dolichophis caspius) and steppe viper (Vipera ursinii).

[4][14] Exceptionally, some steppe eagles have been known to overwinter in Altai Town, Kazakhstan, living reportedly off of brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) and rock doves (Columba livia).

[13][14] In east Africa, the diet of steppe eagles is poorly documented but is reported to consist largely of silvery mole-rats (Heliophobius argenteocinereus) and blesmols of the genus Cryptomys.

[179] Perhaps to avoid competition (i.e. from vultures, jackals and so on) and to monopolize a food item, steppe eagles in India appear to come largely to smaller carcasses such as those of jungle cats (Felis chaus) and pythons.

The steppes have been observed feeding on freshly killed young water birds at Bharatpur at daybreak and during early mornings and so may hunt while taking advantage of bright moonlight.

What is known suggests that they, even more strongly than wintering steppe eagles in Indian subcontinent, today frequent various waste food sources inadvertently provided to them by humans.

Hungry canids are often particularly detrimental predators, particularly grey wolves (Canis lupus) and dogs (often herding and feral ones) and more infrequently red foxes and other carnivores like cats and their kin.

[150][10][210] Although rarely observed to halt movements or to eat while migrating in Israel, one steppe eagle was seen to suddenly strike down and consume an adult common buzzard while both species were in passage there.

[220][221] Another unusual Kazakh nest was on the ground with rather loamy grasslands that was probably unsafe due to excessive sun exposure (only blocked for 20% of the day) and a considerable local presence of red foxes.

Full body size and juvenile plumage (but for fully-developed wing and tail feathers) was attained at 40–43 days for the chick, it weighed 2.9 kg (6.4 lb); although fully grown, it still crouched down at threats and could not fly.

[240] The diagnosed causes of decline in Xinjiang, Tibet and Qinghai were found mostly to be poaching, poisoning from rodent control programs (with systemic efforts dating back at least 60 years), poisoning also targeted towards predators, illegal trade, food shortages and wire collisions but perhaps most of all habitat destruction, often with their former homes destroyed to make way for roadworks, tourism and mine exploration, with more destruction from overharvest of trees and plants and overgrazing by livestock, and accidental are frequent.

However, continued relative stability of the species has been detected in the more minor eastern part of the range (based on largely unchanged numbers of migrants from here in Nepal and elsewhere in the Himalayas) such as Altai.

[238][250][251] One potential stopgap solution to mitigate some of the electrocutions may be to install T-shaped perches around transmission towers which has been effective in reducing the more minor decline from powerlines in the Mongolian part of the range.

[119] From the years 1882 to 2013, an estimated 76,879 steppes were recorded in 9 countries in Indian subcontinent, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Sikkim, Myanmar and Bangladesh, often gathering around garbage and carrion dumps.