White-bellied Sea Eagle

White-bellied Sea Eagle

Haliaeetus leucogaster

White-bellied Sea-eagle

Haliaeetus leucogaster

White-bellied Sea-Eagle

Haliaeetus leucogaster

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Species Index

11th Dec, 2007

Full Species (monotypic); i.e. no subspecies/races

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Sparingly distributed along the entire coast.

[This bird, though not rare, is yet not common. It is found everywhere along and near the coast in Tenasserim, but never except singly or in pairs, more frequently I think in pairs. I have seen it going up the Rangoon River as well as off Moulmein, and in many places along tile coast. A pair used to frequent the harbour at Mergui, and many a weary hour have I spent in futile attempts to circumvent them.

Early in the morning as the fishing boats came in, accompanied by sundry Sterna bergii, Gelochelidon anglica and sometimes a specimen or two of Xema bruneicephala, these two eagles would swoop down from the neighbouring island of Patoe, where they were accustomed to spend the night, and commence slowly sailing round the canoes, keeping a sharp look-out for any refuse fish that might happen to be thrown overboard chasing one another, or some fortunate Tern that had secured a fish, and compelling it to relinquish its booty, keeping up the whole time their harsh duck-like quack. Then when the fish had all been carried off to market, and the fishermen had betaken themselves home, when the last piece of offal had been disposed of, and no possible prospect remaining of any further supplies until the next morning, the Terns had all flown away out to sea, the pair, if it happened to be low water, would usually work along the exposed mud banks, picking up anything eatable left by the receding tide. Then after a time, or, if it happened to be high water, at once, they would betake themselves to one of the fishing stakes or some neighbouring tree where they would sit and perform their morning toilet, and this completed commence sailing in circles over the harbour or town.

I have often tried, when I thought them fully occupied with the fishing canoes, to steal up in a canoe and secure a specimen, but always without success; they were always too wary; I tried giving the gun to a boatman and sending him down to where the fish were landed, and this would have succeeded could the man have managed to shoot straight; for on the first two mornings he did succeed in getting a couple of very fair shots, but without doing any more harm than frightening the Terns, and a couple of score of crows that always took, or at any rate appeared to take, great interest in the unloading of the fish, to judge from the way in which they watched and followed every basket full.

In my trip down to Malewoon from Mergui in a native boat, all or nearly all the islands that I passed, or touched at, included a pair at least of these eagles in their fauna, but these were quite as wary as those of the Mergui harbour, and the consequence was that I only succeeded in procuring a couple.

Their food appears to consist of fish, water-snakes, and other marine edible objects, and of these-only, for although I have often seen these eagles soaring about over the town of Mergui, I have never seen them even attempt to strike any of the numberless chickens that ran about the streets and outskirts of the place, and while any rubbish carted and thrown on the shore below high water mark, was sure to attract all the crows of the neighbourhood and many Brahminy Kites (Haliastur indus); these eagles seldom even took the trouble to approach the spot, or if they did, (attracted by seeing all the kites and crows in the vicinity hurrying there) they merely circled once or twice over the spot and then hurried away seaward.- W. D.].

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