 Although originally proposed as separate species, many authors previously considered both the black-chested and Beaudouin's snake eagles to be subspecies of the short-toed snake eagle ("Circaetus gallicus").However, this convention was not followed by all taxonomists, with some citing differences in adult plumage and breeding ranges as evidence in favour of awarding each full species status.Brown (1974) followed this latter view, but cited several instances of alleged hybridization between the three forms which would justify their treatment as a single species under the Biological Species Concept.