Feathered Fridays: White-bellied Sea Eagle

This article is part of the Feathered Fridays series, a spotlight on different bird species found at your airports or aerodrome spaces.

Image: Manelka Javasundara

Risk Level: High Risk

Overview

White-bellied sea eagles are some of the largest birds of prey in their range. Adults can be identified by their white heads and “bellies”, grey-black flight feathers, and piercing black eyes. Juvenile eagles do not have the distinctive white head, but a greyish-brown head and underparts.

Brahminy kites are commonly mistaken for white-bellied sea eagles and vise versa. Both raptors live in across southeast Asia, are commonly seen fishing near waterways, and have white heads. When identifying adults, Brahminy kites are smaller and have brown bellies. Another way to differentiate the two species is by observing their flight patterns. White-bellied sea eagles fly in a V-shape, while Brahminy kites fly in an M-shape.

Range

White-bellied sea eagles can be found near coastal regions in India, Southeast Asia, and Australia. The most northern populations can be seen in southern China with the most southern populations in Tasmania.

Behavior

These raptors have different breeding periods depending on where they live. In southern Asia, the breeding season is from October to March, southeast Asia from December to May, and southern Australia from June to December.

White-bellied sea eagles can often be found in pairs, when breeding these eagles from monogamous pairs. Eagle pairs will build a nest and raise their young together. If you spot one white-bellied sea eagle, odds are there are others in the area.

In the Airfield

Eagle nesting around the airfield should be monitored. White-bellied sea eagles make large nests usually at the top of tall trees, these can be sometimes be found around airport parameters. When juvenile eagles first start to fly outside of the nest, they do not recognize the dangers of aircrafts and are more likely to get hit. Adult eagles are still at risk of being struck by aircrafts, but juvenile eagles can make up a majority of eagle strikes in an airport.

Airports are a grassy habitat, this habitat the airport unintentionally creates attract raptors because of their abundance of prey species like rodents, lizards, and smaller birds. Unfortunately for birds and airplanes, raptor strikes are common; therefore, causing bird deaths and costly airplane damages. One simple yet, effective way to reduce the number of raptors like the white-bellied sea eagle in an airspace is by using anti-bird perching spikes. White-bellied sea eagles like to perch on higher surfaces to scan for prey on the ground. Keeping perching areas like fences, lampposts, and even runway and taxiway signs spiked, can keep raptor numbers lower. When bird spikes do not do the trick, reactive measures like long range acoustic devices, stockwhips, pyrotechnics, and propane cannons all have their benefits.

Identifying which species of raptor and bird in general can help determine a species management program.