Snake Eagles are not immune to snake venom and can be immobilised or killed by venomous snakes, and blinded by a spitting Cobra. Their tarsi (feet and legs) are thickly scaled which serves as a protection against snake bite. After catching their prey, they will carry it with their tarsi to a perch to devour.
As with many raptors, Snake Eagles are no exception as far as identification is concerned, although in this case it is more difficult to separate them from other raptors and not from each other. For instance, the Black-chested Snake Eagle’s lookalike is the Martial Eagle. The difference being that the Snake Eagle is smaller, has big yellow eyes and a large head (compared to its body size), and its underparts are pure white in contrast to the Martial Eagle’s dark brown spots. Probably the biggest difference is in flight, where the Snake Eagle is almost pure white with the black neck and head sticking out, while the Martial Eagle has black primaries and secondaries with fine black and white barring.
The Brown Snake Eagle is a brown raptor – need I say more? You can go through your list of brown raptors and if you are still uncertain, the big head and large yellow eyes might be the solution to your problem. Being the largest of the snake eagles does not help much to differentiate it from other large brown raptors, neither does the fact that they are silent (they very seldom call). They do tend to spend a lot of time perched on top of open trees, if that will help your attempt at identification.