GREY HEADED FISH EAGLE

Description:

The grey-headed fish eagle (Ichthyophaga ichthyaetus) is a fish-eating bird of prey from South East Asia.[ It is a large stocky raptor with adults having dark brown upper body, grey head and lighter underbelly and white legs. Juveniles are paler with darker streaking. It is often confused with the lesser fish eagle (Ichthyophaga humilis) and the Pallas's fish eagle. The lesser fish eagle is similar in plumage but smaller and the Pallas’s fish eagle shares the same habitat and feeding behaviour but is larger with longer wings and darker underparts. Is often called tank eagle in Sri Lanka due to its fondness for irrigation tanks.

Habitat:

The grey headed fish eagle has a wide distribution, that encompasses India and South-East Asia to Malaysia, Western Indonesia and Philippines. It is uncommon in North and East Sri Lanka. The grey headed fish eagles lives in lowland forests up to 1,500 m above sea-level. Their nests are close to bodies of water such as slow-moving rivers and streams, lakes, lagoons, reservoirs, marshes, swamps and coastal lagoons and estuaries. They are also seen in areas where the frequent irrigation tanks in Sri Lanka in the dry zones.