 A specimen collected from Morogoro in 1922 was found to have a pellet of rodent fur and a hissing sand snake in its stomach contents.The black-chested snake eagle nests in trees (typically in the crown of flat-topped acacia, although there is one record of the species nesting in the pine "Pinus patula"), and typically builds its nests concealed in mistletoe or epiphytic vegetation.The nest itself is a small stick structure.