Eastern Imperial Eagle, Aquila heliaca, is a species of day-flying bird of prey found in grassland and woodland and forest ecosystems. It is a summer visitor to central, eastern and south-eastern Europe. This is a lowland species that has been pushed to higher altitudes by persecution and habitat loss in Europe. In central and eastern Europe, it breeds in forests up to 1,000 m and also in steppe and agricultural areas with large trees, and nowadays also on electricity pylons (European Red List 2015).

Aquila heliaca has a breeding population size of 190-250 pairs and a breeding range size of 30200 square kilometres in the EU27. The breeding population trend in the EU27 is Increasing in the short term and Increasing in the long term.

The EU population status of Aquila heliaca was assessed as Near Threatened, because the species comes close to meeting the IUCN Red List criteria at the EU27 scale.