Aquila heliaca suffers as a result of persecution, disturbance while breeding, poisoning (targeted at canids), zoo collecting, habitat loss (and the attendant loss of prey species), agricultural pesticides, felling of nest trees, and collision with or electrocution by power- lines.
Aquila heliaca occupies a massive but highly fragmented breeding range extending through the wooded steppes of Slovakia, Croatia, former Yugoslavia (Serbia), Macedonia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Iran, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and China. Wintering birds from the eastern populations occur regularly in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Laos, Vietnam and Hong Kong.
There has been a rapid decline of Aquila heliaca in Europe since 1950 (where the current total lies between 320 and 570 pairs). The world population is now down to a few thousand pairs.
Aquila heliaca is considered as "Vulnerable" by the IUCN. CITES lists it as "Appendix 2".