So far this month, there have been two reports of nesting, both by William Ip. Is February 2011 the beginning of another breeding season in Singapore?
The first report was an active eagle’s nest found high up a transmission tower on Bukit Batok hill. After observing it for a couple weeks, William finally saw the pair of White-bellied Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster) arriving at the nest at around 4:30 pm.
The small eagle landed in the nest directly without any prey. Five minutes later, the bigger eagle followed the same route and landed about a metre above the nest, rested for a moment before touching down in the nest. Both did not bring any prey to the nest.
The two birds stayed in the nest for a minute and the bigger eagle left with a big piece of object, which, according to William, “may be part of a big fish (above). The question is whether the bigger eagle ‘stole’ the food or carried it away for whatever purpose. There was no noise or stress call during the time when the two eagles were in the nest They did not struggle when in the nest.”
The second nesting was by a pair of White-throated Kingfishers (Halcyon smyrnensis). They were building a nest on the cliff in a nature park on the evening of 5th February 2011. The pair was flying in and out of the hole for more than an hour from 5 pm that day (above).
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Saw a white bellied sea eagle nest near my place last week. Worried about the mother eagle since it was raining heavily on and off these few days. This afternoon, the mother eagle looks ok. Do you think it is fine for the mother eagle ?? Have not seen the other eagle since Sunday.