Grey-headed Fish Eagle
Encyclopedia : G : GR : GRE : Grey-headed Fish Eagle
The Grey-headed Fish Eagle (Ichthyophaga ichthyaetus) is a bird of prey. Like all eagles, it is in the family Accipitridae.
Grey-headed Fish Eagle breeds in southern Asia from India and Sri Lanka to south east Asia and the Philippines. It is a forest bird which builds a stick nest in a tree near water and lays two to four eggs.
Grey-headed Fish Eagle is a largish stocky raptor at about 70-75cm in length. Adults have dark brown wings and back, a grey head and reddish brown breast. The lower belly, thighs and tail are white, the latter having a black terminal band.
Sexes are similar, but young birds have a pale buff head, underparts and underwing, all with darker streaking.
Grey-headed Fish Eagle, as its English and scientific names suggest, is a specialist fish eater which hunts over lakes, lagoons and large rivers.
References
- BirdLife International (2004). [Ichthyophaga ichthyaetus]. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is near threatened
- Birds of India by Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp, ISBN 0-691-04910-6
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.