Adults are very distinctive in appearance, with a mostly brown body and large, powerful, black wings. The eyes are dark brown. The
feet have rough soles and are equipped with powerful claws to allow the eagle to grasp the slippery aquatic prey. Although this species subsists primarily on
fish and opportunistic and can take a wider variety of
prey, waterfowl. The call, when more acute given by men, is a WEEE Hyo-Hyo-ah-ah-or HEEE heeah heeah. As the name suggests, African fish eagles are indigenous to sub-Saharan Africa, ranging over most of continental Africa south of the Sahara Desert.
African Fish Eagle feeds mainly on fish, which, to locate potential prey from a perch in a tree, will be descending on its prey and breaking of the waters, with its large claws claws. The eagle will then fly to his perch to eat the fish. Like other sea eagles,
African Fish Eagle has structures called tiptoed spiricules to capture fish and other slippery prey. If the African fish eagle catching a fish over 1.8 kg (4 pounds), it will be too heavy to allow the eagle to get a lift, so that the fish rather than slipping on the surface of the water to reach the shore.
African Fish Eagle is known to steal other bird species (such as Goliath herons) capture. From time to time may also remove mammalian prey as badgers and monkeys.