2 September – The older eaglet is exercising its wings vigorously, clearly showing darker feathers coming through. The smaller eaglet is sitting back, with a full crop after a large meal.
2 September – The female has been brought a live mullet, that she is struggling to subdue by biting its head as usual. However the fish slips out of her grip, flopping right between the two eaglets. She later managed to kill it and begin feeding the chicks again
1 September – The female brought in a bird, which she is grasping, flexing her talons as she grapples with a small eel the male brought in. She tried to feed the eel to the chicks, but finally swallowed it whole herself.
The female is offering small pieces of fish to the tiny downy chicks. One piece is offered to both chicks, but rejected by both. Too big? So she eats it herself.
The remains of a large mullet are on the nest as the female flies in. She offers food to the chicks, the larger chick is on the left, showing a size difference. The nest is lined with fresh green leaves.
Both chicks can be clearly seen. It was a very windy day - the nest and camera move a great deal. Both adults are on the nest with fish - the female on the left.
The female has the remains of a fish and is feeding the tiny chick with great gentleness and care. Is she scratching her head with one foot?
30 July – The first chick hatched this morning and gradually gained strength during the day. The female (very wet and bedraggled) is feeding tiny bits of fish to one chick.
7 July – the female was incubating when the male brought in a large whiting, which was still alive. Both birds looked at it for a while - still flapping, right on the eggs. While the male just flew off, the female finally pecked at the fish, then dragged it away from the eggs by its head. She secured it in her talons and flew off to eat it. Eggs safe fortunately.
The Catch Since the first egg was laid, the male has been bringing fish to the female on the nest. She either eats there or flies off to eat at one of their favourite roosts nearby, out of camera range. He has brought mainly fish and often delivers them minus the head. In 25 days, he brought 32 items of food: 10 mullet, 14 good-sized bream, 2 whiting, 8 unidentified fish, 1 gull, 1 Common Myna and 1 unknown. One mullet was so big she left it on the edge of the nest overnight, before making several meals of it during the day.
Both eagles are incubating, keeping the eggs covered in the cold Sydney weather. Both birds sometimes appear reluctant to "handover" egg duty. The male is sitting tight when the female flies in and she forcefully pushes him aside before settling on the eggs herself. The male appears to launch himself straight at the camera. The action has been slowed down, showing his magnificent wing beats as he drops from the nest and flies off.
Nest duty Both birds seem to be very keen to incubate, though the female is spending longer than the male. He sometimes tries to cover the eggs, but flies off again when she will not move. We have observed the female on the eggs at first light each day as well as last thing in the evening, so assume she sits all night.
During nest renovation and now during incubation, the male brings food to the female on the nest. He left this large mullet, minus the head and guts, which seems to be the norm. She took this fish off to feed elsewhere. Now she more often feeds on the nest.
The male flew in clutching something in one foot - we were surprised to identify it as a Common Myna. As he flew off the female came in and took over the food. She picked at it a little and then flew off with it to eat elsewhere we presume. She had some difficulty as her talons or the myna were entangled in the nest branches.
Eagle Journal
Close-up of the nest with lining and branches
The carefully arranged nest
One of the eagles monitoring the nest
One of the eagles renovating the nest
Both eagles arranging sticks - The female (on the right) is just landing with a large stick.
The female has moved to the left - The massive nest can be clearly seen with the bowl of the nest lined with fresh green leaves.
Female incubating her first egg laid on 20 June
A glimpse of the second egg with both parents in the nest
The first eagle chick hatched Friday 30 July 2010. Here it is 6 hours old.
Mum giving the new chick its first taste of fish
Mum is on the left, Dad is on the right. Chick 1 is at the back and Chick 2 is at the front.
Beautiful close-up of the Female
Chicks at 3 weeks of age
Chicks at 3 weeks of age with full crops
Chicks on 21 August
Chicks on 21 August
Chicks on 21 August
Chicks on 28 August - growing quickly
Chicks on 28 August - growing quickly
Chicks on 28 August - growing quickly
Close-up of the nest with lining and branches
The carefully arranged nest
One of the eagles monitoring the nest
One of the eagles renovating the nest
Both eagles arranging sticks - The female (on the right) is just landing with a large stick.
The female has moved to the left - The massive nest can be clearly seen with the bowl of the nest lined with fresh green leaves.
Female incubating her first egg laid on 20 June
A glimpse of the second egg with both parents in the nest
The first eagle chick hatched Friday 30 July 2010. Here it is 6 hours old.
Mum giving the new chick its first taste of fish
Mum is on the left, Dad is on the right. Chick 1 is at the back and Chick 2 is at the front.
Beautiful close-up of the Female
Chicks at 3 weeks of age
Chicks at 3 weeks of age with full crops
Chicks on 21 August
Chicks on 21 August
Chicks on 21 August
Chicks on 28 August - growing quickly
Chicks on 28 August - growing quickly
Chicks on 28 August - growing quickly
5 September 2010 – Our first visit into the nest area since the cameras were installed. The area around the nest is splashed with whitewash. The female was on the nest when we walked in and she only moved when we were close, flying to sit on her favourite dead tree. She was well aware of us though and watching closely.
4 September 2010 – The eaglets are now 5 weeks old and growing fast. Early in the morning the female was sheltering them as it was raining steadily. They are now too large to be covered fully by the female. I was able to study their behaviour in detail during the morning. The male brought in the first prey, a small fish. The female fed the bigger eaglet alone while the smaller sat head down and was pecked once hard by the other. The eaglet was fed over 100 small pieces of fish until the fish was gone. Later however, the male brought a live eel and the smaller eaglet moved straight in to be fed while the other, with full crop, sat back. The second eaglet was then fed well over 140 pieces of eel and when it slowed down, the female fed both chicks for a while, before the first moved in again. No aggression at all between the eaglets was observed.
28 August 2010 – Both eaglets are showing pin feathers now at 4 weeks, with darker feathers showing through the white down. Their feet appear really large and they still move awkwardly around the nest. They are picking up small twigs and taking small scraps of food left in the nest. Pied Currawongs must be nesting nearby and their warning calls indicate to watchers at EagleCAM that an eagle is flying in. The currawongs swoop bravely, or foolishly, right to the nest. Australian Ravens escort the eagles into the woodland from the river. The nesting magpie is the boldest, hitting the eagles hard as they fly over to their nest.
23 August 2010 – The older eaglet is showing dark pin feathers now and both chicks appear stronger. Nearby wetlands in Sydney Olympic Park have been drained for Gambusia control (an introduced pest fish) so there are eels and carp for easy catching. Both of the parents have been seen low over these wetlands. A large carp provided food for the eaglets for most of the day. Late in the afternoon the smaller eaglet was seen right at the edge of the nest, which led us to consider a plan if one of the chicks should fall or be ejected from the nest.
The female is brooding the chicks at first light and as dark falls, though they are left on the nest for long periods during the day.
21 August 2010 – the eaglets are now 3 weeks old. There is still a size difference and the older chick still shows some aggression towards the smaller, pecking it about the head. The smaller often adopts a head-down submissive position while the older is being fed, though both are being fed. The male is bringing food to the nest now, which the female then feeds to the young ones. He is still bringing mainly fish. The nest appears to be clean, as the eaglets void over the edge of the nest; head down, rear up then squirt right up in the air. The female is bringing fresh green leaves to line the nest.
14 August 2010 – The chicks are now two weeks old and it is difficult to tell the difference between them. They are quite aggressive towards each other. Both chicks are getting well fed by their parents and their crops (bellies) are always full and bulging out. They are still not walking around yet as they are too stuffed with food. At this point in time it looks as if both chicks may survive, which is unusual.
1 August 2010 – The second chick has hatched. We are still unsure exactly when the second egg was laid. 30 July 2010 – At 7:13 this morning there were signs of one of the eggs being pecked from the inside. By 7:28 there was a hole in the egg. At 8:01 the first wing was out. At 8:09 the shell had split in half. The first good look of the chick was at 9:56, but still pink and wet downy covering. At 12:50 the male brought a live fish (whiting) back to the nest; the female immediately claimed the fish but did not eat it straight away. At 14:12 the Female is trying to encourage the chick with some fish. The chick is having problems holding its head up and staying upright as its only 6 hours old. By 16:04 the chick is taking small bits of fish.
4 July 2010 – There are definitely 2 eggs in the nest now, which we have suspected for some time. The second egg is obviously cleaner than the first. It will be interesting to try to determine when the second egg was laid. The first egg was covered by one or other of the eagles right from laying.
22 June 2010 – At daybreak one of the birds was incubating, but soon stood and left the nest. The egg was uncovered for about 20 minutes, before the female returned. She sat briefly before beginning to feed on a fish that was in the nest. She fed, standing on the rim, for about 30 minutes, watched by the male for some of the time. She then flew off again and the male settled to incubate. It was quite cold, so it is interesting to see the egg left uncovered. The bowl of the nest is neatly lined with green leaves though. 20 June 2010 – The female laid this morning at 6:36am at first light just before sunrise. Shortly after the male brought a small fish to the nest. We shall be watching closely to see if another egg is laid in the next few days. 16 June 2010 – Nest renovation has continued for 4 weeks since the cameras were installed on 14 May. While the cameras were being installed by our man high in the tree, the eagles circled overhead or watched from their favourite roost tree nearby. They returned to renovate their nest and were recorded from the next morning. Unless the birds keep adding sticks to the rim, we should be able to bring you excellent footage of the action. As can be seen from the photos, the nest is huge now, with successive pairs using the same site each year.
30 May 2010 – The White-bellied Sea-Eagles have returned to their nest near the Birds Australia Discovery Centre in Sydney Olympic Park for the third consecutive year and can again be seen live on EagleCam inside the Discovery Centre. This year, the camera position is slightly more elevated than last year giving a wonderful view into the nest from high in the adjacent trees. As part of the ongoing study, we hope to provide continuous footage of the whole breeding cycle at the nest from May to November.
Spying on the Sea-Eagles
The White-bellied Sea-Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster) is a fairly common sight along the coasts and inland rivers of Australia, as well as further afield. Even as our second largest raptor, little is known about their complete breeding cycle, from nest building to fledging. The huge nest of large sticks is commonly placed in a high tree and the nest may be used for many years in succession.
The Parramatta River Sea-Eagles are often seen during the day on their prominent mangrove perch, loafing or feeding on a mullet or other fish from the wetlands. They may also be seen soaring overhead on up-swept wings. The nest is placed high in a Scribbly Gum in the Newington Nature Reserve and has been used by a succession of Sea-Eagles over the years. Each year the nest has been monitored and valuable observations made.
Volunteers from the Birds Australia Discovery Centre and Sydney Olympic Park Rangers placed cameras high in the nest tree. This will provide a wonderful opportunity to closely monitor daytime breeding behaviour at the nest. Already many interesting observations have been made, after looking at the recordings (a big job in itself). In the first month of nest-renovation in 2009, Jon Irvine recorded at least 184 sticks being brought to the nest. The male brought 75% of the sticks and at least 40% of his visits to the nest involved bringing sticks. The female brought 25% of the sticks and for at least 18% of her visits she was bringing sticks. The female however was responsible for bringing the vast majority of green leaves. Both birds arrange the sticks and leaves, and spend time arranging and renovating. The significance of the green leaves lining the nest is not understood: it is suggested the leaves may be for camouflage, have antiseptic properties or have some social relevance.
Eagle Watch continues and anyone visiting the Discovery Centre during opening times on weekends may watch the live action as well as recordings of previous interesting behaviour.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank our EagleCam supporters, who have donated their time, skill and financial assistance: Jon Irvine Geoff Hutchinson Judy Harrington Sue Marlin Graham Weule Joan Rosenthal Bruce Frost Alison Doyle Comsec TR Pty Ltd The Stump Guy Tree Care Sydney Olympic Park Authority Discovery Centre Volunteers
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Spying on the Sea-Eagles