[3] Tawny eagles have an extensive but discontinuous breeding range that constitutes much of the African continent as well as the Indian subcontinent, with rare residency in the southern Middle East.

[6] The tawny eagle is perhaps the most highly opportunistic of all Aquilinae, and often scavenges on carrion or engages in kleptoparasitism towards other carnivorous animals but is also a bold and active predator, often of relatively large and diverse prey.

[12] While perching, the tawny eagle tends to sit rather upright, often on stumps, posts, low trees or treetops for long periods of the day or may descend to the ground to walk somewhat unsteadily with a more horizontal posture.

[4][39] Most adults are usually a general grey-brown or rufous-tawny color, with occasional pale spotting visible at close quarters on the nape and belly, coverts uniformly toned as the body.

[4] The trailing edge of the wing is slightly curved outwards, indenting at the junction of primaries and secondaries, whilst the rounded, medium-length tail is usually held spread.

[4] The underparts of subadults (i.e. around 2 to 3 years or old) are typically two-toned, with darker brown about the breasts, belly and underwings coverts while the remainder of the underbody is creamy light in colour.

[4][6] The female may also emit an occasional mewing, high shreep-shreep at the nest as well as a rare raucous scream (possible food-begging and alarm calls, respectively).

[68][69][70][71] In southern Africa, the tawny eagle is found throughout Zimbabwe (now often rare apart from Matabeleland and Chipinga Uplands), Botswana (still regular in Okavango Delta) and some areas of Namibia, southern and western Angola (Cuando Cubango, Cunene, Huíla Namibe, to Malanje), Eswatini, Lesotho and northern and central parts of South Africa, i.e. mainly north of the Orange River but sometimes down to the Cape Province.

[84] In Asia, the tawny eagle exists in isolation in southeastern Iran (as in Arabia, verified recent breeding is not known) and somewhat more continuously in eastern Pakistan (often in the Indus valley), much of north and peninsular India, eastward scarcely through southern Nepal and Assam.

[12][71][75] In India, similar habitats may largely be used but the tawny eagle may fairly often occur too in the vicinity of villages and cultivations and frequents garbage dumps and slaughterhouses somewhat more so than they do in Africa.

[6] In the Mirpur Division of Azad Kashmir in Pakistan, small flocks of tawny eagles have reportedly been witnessed gathering in warmer spots between November and February, over three years of study.

[104] Small groups or aggregations are known to occur in Africa as well near concentrated foods and even communal roost have been reported in trees, power pylons or on the ground.

In addition to other observations have been made where tawny eagles drink and bathe at night, some nocturnal subsistence behaviour by this species has been inferred but no irrefutable evidence has been brought forth either.

[108] A very detailed study was conducted in Tsavo East National Park, Kenya, of the diet of the local tawny eagles over different years.

[129] A general picture appears to emerge that tawny eagles quite often takes relatively large mammalian prey, surprisingly often creatures weighing up to 3 to 4 kg (6.6 to 8.8 lb) such as hares, dik-diks, the young of other antelopes, hyraxes and so on.

[114][41][138] More minor avian prey includes nightjars, coucals, sandgrouse, swifts, bee-eaters, kingfishers, rollers, wood hoopoes, turacos, parrots and several passerines.

[145] In southern Africa and Kenya the following snakes have been identified in the foods of tawny eagles: Egyptian sand boa (Eryx colubrinus), young African rock python (Python sebae), speckled sand racer (Psammophis punctulatus), rufous beaked snake (Rhamphiophis oxyrhynchus), black-necked spitting cobra (Naja nigricollis), black mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis), boomslang (Dispholidus typus) and puff adder (Bitis arietans).

[12][48][146] They also hunt lizards not infrequently given the chance, usually favoring fairly large species but capable of taking those ranging from geckos to rock monitors (Varanus albigularis).

When visiting termites, the tawny eagles commonly eat alates and may, with an unusual lack of aggression, share the food source with several other birds of prey, including as many as a half dozen conspecifics.

[12][46] They have been recorded feeding on a huge array of carcasses as large as African bush elephants (Loxodonta africana) and at least as small as vervet monkeys and perhaps even down to the size of a dove.

[156] At Maasai Mara, the top scavengers were the considerably to slightly heavier mammals, i.e. spotted hyenas (Crocuta croctua), black-backed jackals (Canis mesomelas) and feral dogs (Canis lupus familiaris), then the lappet-faced vulture (Torgos tracheliotos), the Rüppell's griffon (Gyps rueppellii), followed by all other vultures with the tawny eagle and the bateleur in the second most and the most subordinate scavenger positions.

[6][12][28] Perhaps not coincidentally, in Maasai Mara, the tawny eagles were found to benefit from a carcass being nearer human habitations and in lower quality habitats relative to the other scavengers.

[12][53][146] The size of birds that the tawny eagles have been known to pirate food away from have ranged from species as small as black-winged kites (Elanus caeruleus) and common kestrels (Falco tinnunculus) to those as large as a lammergeier (Gypaetus barbatus).

[6][12] In turn, the tawny eagle seems to adapt via a lack of specialization on any particular prey type, hunting style or food source, and via including carrion in the diet quite often.

[48][47][110][183] In India, the tawny eagle has been known to prey upon western marsh harriers (Circus aeruginosus), shikras (Accipiter badius) and white-eyed buzzards (Butastur teesa).

[12][189] In Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, South Africa, tawny eagles build nests that are positioned in the canopy of large Vachellia erioloba trees.

[4] Evidence from the Kalahari Desert shows that egg-laying is timed to exploit a number of food resources with warmer weather in sync with young in the nest, such as various small mammals and the springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) lambing season.

[29][66][59][195][196][197] Showing the variation in India, in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, tawny eagles are mainly laying eggs in January while in Kutch and Jaisalmer, the young are already leaving the nests.

[205][206][207][208] Poisoning events are far from restricted to Botswana and are thought to be a direct factor in the reduction of tawny eagles as well even in the protected areas of Kruger National Park.

[210] Further threats to tawny eagles include habitat loss and land-use changes such as intensified cattle grazing, firewood collection and sale and the charcoal industry.