As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Wednesday 11 June 2014

Sea eagles in Hong Kong

On a recent boat trip along southern Lantau I noticed a large bird of prey soaring in the distance. If you live in HK you know that we have thousands of black kites that soar overhead pretty much everywhere including the financial district of Central. So normally the sight of a bird of prey soaring overhead is commonplace and not worthy of note. I would not have thought more of it. But it struck me that this bird seemed bigger and the closer the boat got, the bigger it seemed. A lot bigger than a black kite! Once we got close enough and passed under it I saw it had a wide white triangular shape covering it's head, belly and part of the underside of the wings. Looking it up in my copy of 'Birds of Hong Kong and South China' I managed to identify it as a white-bellied sea eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster). Sea eagles in Hong Kong? That surprised me.

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