crows vs eagle @ SBWR - Feb 2017

This clip shows the ubiquitous house crows harassing a juvenile white-bellied sea eagle. The crows are certainly persistent and each brave enough to mess with the much larger eagle.

The eagle tried its best to maintain its balance but lost it and had to take to the air although it was clearly unprepared to do so and seemingly forgot to tell its legs that it was no longer on the tree.

crows vs eagle @ SBWR - Feb 2017 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

Juvenile White-Bellied Sea Eagle Fishing @ SBWR Eagle Point - 2Oct2016

This juvenile WBSE appeared out of nowhere in the sky above at Eagle Point, SBWR and quickly drew the keen attention of the few visitors at the lookout point. It swooped down towards a dead fish (probably a milkfish which is one of the types of fish farmed at the nearby offshore 'fishfarms') floating at the water surface which it skilfully picked up with incredible precision. It soon flew off into the fringing coastal mangrove forest. What a wonderful sight!

(no audio - footage shot at 120fps)


Juvenile White-Bellied Sea Eagle Fishing @ SBWR Eagle Point - 2 Oct 2016 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

sea eagle and dinner choices @ SBWR - Jan 2015

The new Eagle Point lookout at SBWR is aptly named as the resident sea eagles do soar by during the day. A good time to see them soaring is during the evening hours between 5pm to 7pm.  Sometimes, the eagles do show off their acrobatic skills when they swoop down to catch fish at the water surface.

Exposed sandbars do present an easy source of stranded fish.

The clip shows an eagle swooping down to the sandbar and sitting beside a white object (stranded fish) on the sand(or maybe the fish was dropped by another smaller raptor like the brahminy kite circling close by). However, it decides not to grab it but flies off before spotting a live fish at the water surface. It glides down and grabs the live fish but fails to sufficiently secure it resulting in it dropping the fish.

It flies off before returning and grabbing the stranded fish from the sandbar. It is almost immediately chased by a brahminy kite which had been soaring in the area too. The brahminy had ignored the stranded fish earlier. Perhaps the fish had been too big for the brahminy to carry off but nevertheless, it did its best to chase the eagle. The eagle managed to get away with its dinner despite the harassment by the brahminy. Raptors frequently challenge each other when it comes to food and try to cause the other to drop it.

The first part of the clip was shot in slowmo with audio dubbed in from the forest nearby. The remainder of the clip shares the audio recorded at the scene with several big glass camera motor drives excitedly whirring and clicking.

sea eagle and dinner choices @ SBWR - Jan 2015 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

Find out more about these local birds and SBWR :

http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/birds/Haliaeetus_leucogaster.htm

http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/birds/Haliastur_indus.htm

https://www.sbwr.org.sg/

white-bellied sea eagle fishing @ esplanade 11Oct2013

This adult WBSE flew in rather late at about 6.40 pm to do some fishing and on its second pass over the reservoir, managed to find a good sized fish for dinner. It adjusted its flight, dropping almost straight down with a slight swoop before snatching the fish with one leg. Flying off, it secured its grip with a quick look and started flying in a wide spiral to gain height before finally heading off across the Padang.

white-bellied sea eagle fishing @ esplanade 11Oct2013 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

(Unavoidable background music recorded with clip)

Read more about this magnificent bird :
http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/birds/Haliaeetus_leucogaster.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-bellied_Sea_Eagle
http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_579_2005-01-05.html
http://singaporebirds.net/npassers_04/white-bellied_sea_eagle.html
http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/106003359/0
http://www.nss.org.sg/report/f494524f-1SingaporeRaptorReportJan11.pdf
http://www.besgroup.org/2010/01/09/white-bellied-sea-eagles-catch-sea-snakes/
http://besgroup.blogspot.com/2006/05/white-bellied-fish-eagle-fishing-rat.html
http://besgroup.blogspot.com/2006/09/white-bellied-sea-eagle-not-just.html
http://www.ecologyasia.com/verts/birds/raptors.htm

eagleantics @ marina bay - June 2013

Was about Parliamant House when i noticed two adult white-bellied sea eagles atop High Street Centre. One took off towards Fort Canning whilst the other stayed put on the 'finger'. Nice of the architects to make such a perch for the area's resident eagles. The views must be stunning (on days without the haze).

Going up Fort Canning, i missed locating the WBSE or the two fledged juveniles. This was the first time i was not able to locate any of the birds in any of the usual perch points. Walking back towards the Southern part of Fort Canning, the two adult birds were atop the finger again. This time, they started their trademark territorial cackling. It could be heard clearly across the distance. Perhaps they were calling to the juveniles to join them.

One of the adults took off towards Marina Bay followed shortly by the other. Time for some last minute fishing. A quick walk over to the Marina promenade proved fruitful. One of the adults came flying in low past the floating platform clutching a large fish in its talons. It flew above the bandstand and decided to circle around. It kept doing this whilst gaining height with each upward spiral before finally continuing its flight path across the Padang. It settled atop High Street Centre. Meanwhile, the other adult WBSE came by also gripping a fish. This one just powered straight on across the top of the Esplanade durians across the Padang. I lost sight of it and it must have taken a different route perhaps back to Fort Canning.

eagleantics @ marina bay - June 2013 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

white-bellied sea eagle escapes a murder of crows @ SBWR - May 2013

The white-belied sea eagle, Singapore's largest resident bird, was enjoying a sunny morning on a bare branch at one end of Pulau Buloh across from Platform 1 at SBWR. It was soon joined by a single crow but within minutes, there were quite a few more crows crowding the surrounding branches. 

As the crows grew in number, they started leapfrogging between the nearby branches constantly repositioning themselves around the eagle which was many times their size. It seemed as if there was intelligence behind the repositioning like a chess game being played on the chequerboard of branches.

The eagle was becoming increasingly concerned with the attention by the ever increasing crows. Soon, it was time for the crows to show the eagle who was boss of that corner of Pulau Buloh.

The eagle quickly decided to take flight after a crow brushed up too close against its wing. Time to escape a murder. It was immediately chased by some of the other crows which had ben waiting on the nearby branches. The eagle flew off to a less crow-ed (pun intended) part of the reserve.

white-bellied sea eagle and a murder of crows @ SBWR May2013 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

Here are some links about crows :

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/11/crow-intelligence-mind_n_2457181.html

http://www.cracked.com/article_19042_6-terrifying-ways-crows-are-way-smarter-than-you-think.html

http://nusavifauna.wordpress.com/category/crows/

http://nusavifauna.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/large-billed-crow/

http://www.besgroup.org/2006/10/23/a-house-crow-went-fishing/

http://www.besgroup.org/2006/04/20/the-house-crow-and-the-bat/

http://www.besgroup.org/2009/07/13/house-crow-caching-meat/

http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/pub/naturewatch/text/a094b.htm

http://blog.nus.edu.sg/lsm2251student/2010/04/14/the-bully-in-singapore/

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/070108-crows.html

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3802688?uid=3738992&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21102330702267

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3802944?uid=3738992&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21102330702267

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/world/asia/08singapore.html

grey-headed fish eagle @ sg buloh wetland reserve - Oct2012

It was about 1030 am when I spotted a raptor quite far off flying in tight circular. It was only when I got a faraway glimpse of the top edge of its tail that I knew what it was...a rare grey-headed fish eagle. (There was a distinctive black edge to the white tail). This was my second time seeing it at SBWR. The first was in July 2012 when it flew almost directly overhead the main bridge giving me a fabulous short clip. (see this post from July 2012).

The eagle was flying somewhere near the outdoor classroom area beyond the main tower aerie. It kept to a tight circle for a few minutes before flying off towards the coast. It seemed as if it was somehow interested in the area below its flight circle. Hopefully it was scouting out a roost or fishing spot.

grey-headed fish eagle @ sg buloh wetland reserve - Oct2012 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

Good to know that the grey-headed fish eagles are finding SBWR suitable. I hope they stay.

Towards the mid-afternoon whilst I was occupying a quiet gazebo at the mangrove boardwalk area when the air was interrupted by the unmistakable squawking of white-bellied fish eagles coming from the direction of the currently closed (for renovations) Kranji Nature Trail. I hope the renovations do not inconvenience the WBSEs too much.  Let's hope they stay too!

wbse re-fishing @ marina bay-Aug2012

The WBSEs seem to have had found a new fishing ground in the days leading up to the National Day parade on Aug 9th. They were hardly seen in the area last week although a friend said that she had seen them fishing at the Kallang Basin nearby.

This evening, they were a no show until about 7pm when one appeared looking for fish. After about a minute, another wbse appeared also looking for fish. The second one made a slow sweep of the water below it before plunging down and grabbing a rather large fish. However, as it was flying off with it, it must have realised that the fish was a tad big and without proper assistance from the right evening breeze, which had all but disappeared, it had to abandon the large fish. I'm assuming that the eagle was reluctant to do so but it let the fish drop back into the water from a height of about 3 or 4 metres causing a small splash and then carried on searching the water for other fish. After about 3 minutes of flying around within the same general area, it went back again for the dropped fish which must have still been close to the water surface. This time, it did not let the fish go and carried it off not without some difficulty gaining height as it flew in a tight spiral towards the Esplanade Bridge before flying off towards the Padang and where it finally landed on its regular feeding perch atop a nearby tall office building. It did not seem to finish its meal as it flew off again within a few minutes. Perhaps the fish took out more energy from the eagle and the eagle decided that it just needed a snack before turning in for the evening.

zeaglerefishing from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

A fabulous show as usual. Just gotta wait for it.

WBSE fished II @ marina bay - July2012

I was lucky to spot this adult white-bellied sea eagle fly into the bay area in a graceful glide.  It suddenly changed direction and dropped into a steep dive swooping to the water surface to catch something. My guess is that a small fish was caught. The catch was not visible as the eagle's feet grasped it totally. The bird went into an upward spiral to gain height before flying off towards its favourite perch atop a nearby building. After it caught the fish, it turned its head to look at the catch in its feet ...  as if to check what it had caught. (background audio from the parade rehearsal nearby).

WBSE fished II @ marina bay - July2012 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

Thursday 19July2012, Time : about 6.20pm

WBSE fished @ marina bay - July2012

Was by the bay area in the evening looking out for the area's resident white-bellied sea eagles going about catching their dinner. The rehearsals for the National Day parade were going on nearby. One adult WBSE showed itself in the sky to the left of the floating platform where the rehearsals were being conducted. The background audio you hear in the clip is from the rehearsal. I guess the WBSE was not too inconvenienced by the audio and started swooping down. It went behind the structures on the platform and I lost sight of it for a bit. However, a few seconds later, it appeared with a large fish in its talons flying low just above the water. It took a beeline towards the Padang area instead of flying in a tight upward spiral. I later spotted it's silhouette far away atop its usual perch on a building beyond the Padang.

WBSE fished @ marina bay - July2012 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

Friday 20July2012, Time : about 6.00pm

juvenile WBSE @ marina bay - July2012

Heard from a friend (SSeo) that she had seen 3 eagles flying over the Marina Bay area last Friday evening. I had known that there were two adult white-bellied sea eagles resident in the area and which fished in the Marina Bay reservoir area. I had also seen Brahminy kites in the area (and also been fooled by eagle kites flown at Marina South. I had however, not seen a third eagle in the area.

This evening started with sighting the 2 resident adult WBSEs flying in the skies above the Padang / Adelphi / Funan area at about 6.30pm. These soon settled atop the nearby High Street Centre building to watch the sunset...something which they regularly do.

A short while later, a lone raptor was spotted flying above the reservoir area. It kept gliding lower and lower in tighter circles and then dropped towards the surface in a graceful dip before grabbing a fish. It then started flying in an upward spiral to gain height. The undersides of the large wings showed a distinct pale colouration. Its tail region also showed a patch of white. These indicate that the bird was a juvenile white-bellied sea eagle. It will eventually take the distinctive colouration of the adults which have a clear white head, belly, tail and the underside of wings. 

This bird flew off with its catch towards the direction of Fort Canning after reaching a suitable gliding height.

zjuvenileWBSE from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.