Lesser Fish Eagle?

Lesser Fish Eagle?

December 21, 2002

Giri and myself were driving on the banks of the Cauvery River, off Kanakapura, 100 kms from Bangalore, when I spotted this bird swoop over the water and disappear into the trees on the banks of the river. As we drove on in anticipation, there it was, sitting on a branch with a struggling fish it its claws! We watched in awe as it shrugged off the water from its wet body and slowly tore the fish apart and ate it, bit by bit..…

The bird was mostly gray. It was not very large about the size of a Black Kite I would say. We assumed it to be a Grey-headed fish eagle, Ichthyophaga ichthyaetus, as this bird has been recorded and breeds in the area.

However, after I scanned these images, and looked through a couple of field guides, I could not but resist putting this up for your comments…Is it possible that this is a Lesser fish eagle, Ichthyophaga humilis?

Would greatly appreciate your feed back!

Regards,

Vijay Cavale

Vijay@Indiabirds.com

PS: Just as we were jumping with joy on this encounter, we had our fist Blue-bearded Bee-eater!