Othello with Mike by William McGarrigle

This month’s featured bird is the African Fish Eagle. The scientific name is Haliaeetus vocifer. Also known as River Eagles, they are related to the North American Bald Eagles and our own White-Tailed Sea Eagles. They are fairly large eagles, weighing up to 7lbs, with a wingspan of up to 8ft, and have a beautiful black, brown and white plumage. These birds are to be found in Africa, south of approximately latitude 16° North. They are perhaps best known for their distinctive call that has become synonymous with the sound of Africa, and they are therefore known as the ‘Voice of Africa’.

African Fish Eagles are always found near lakes, reservoirs, or rivers. They also hunt along the coast, particularly in river mouths and lagoons where the water surface is fairly sheltered. Where food is abundant and there are plenty of large trees suitable for nesting, fish eagles may be found every few hundred yards along the shoreline. As is suggested by the name, their diet is mainly fish that they scoop from just beneath the surface, though they sometimes plunge right into the water

They need to eat about 3lbs of fish per day, and will typically take fish up to 2lbs in weight. Anything larger than about 5lbs has to be dragged along the surface to the shoreline. Other prey includes waterfowl, terrapins, and even baby crocodiles.

Othello in flight by Mike Crutch

Young flamingos are often taken from the large flocks on the shores of the great African lakes.

Fish Eagles’ feet have long claws, and the spiky undersides of their toes can hold wriggling prey securely. Hunting is normally done from a vantage point in a tree near the shoreline and is often finished by 10am. Prey is usually caught no more than 50 yards from the shore. They are also classed as kleptoparasites, which means that they will rob other birds, like herons, of their kills. Intensive studies have revealed that these birds spend less than 20 minutes per day actually on the wing, the rest of their time is spent in the trees resting and digesting their food. Nice work if you can get it!

The African Fish Eagles are usually seen in pairs, whether it is inside or outside of their breeding season that stretches from March to September. They evenly share the kills made by either between the two of them. The bowl-shaped nest is made from a large number of sticks and is lined with grass, leaves and reeds. Most pairs

Othello in flight by Colin Dunjohn

have one or two nest sites that they use regularly. Two eggs are usually laid, and both male and female will help with the incubation. The young hatch after 42-45 days and fly out after 70-75 days.

Othello, our very handsome African Fish Eagle, came to us five years ago as a youngster having been bred at the National Birds of Prey Centre. He was then trained to be a display bird and has been a regular member of our display team. As with most of our display birds, we like to demonstrate their natural behaviour, and so with Othello this involves fishing. We have a small pond near the front of our flying ground and the intention was to train him to ‘fish’ by flying down from a high perch and then scooping his catch from the pond. For this purpose we used one of those annoying ‘Billy the Bass’ plastic singing fish, thankfully with his voice box removed! The ‘fish’ was tied to a length of fishing line and was towed along the surface of the pond. Othello was eventually trained to catch this with spectacular accuracy.

Fishing by Duncan Jennings

News spread of this unusual display, and eventually it reached the national press when the Daily Mail came to see him and did a feature on his fishing of Billy the Bass. The following Bank Holiday weekend there were a thousand or so visitors here to see him display. Othello, being the individual that he is, completely failed to perform. Since then it has always been touch and go as to whether he will actually display his ability on the day. Billy the bass has been discarded and we have tried letting him ‘catch’ his normal food from the pond. When he tires of that, we try to get him to fish out of a large water bowl balanced on top of an upturned bin, with a variable success rate. He really his is own boss, and he gets away with his slight unreliability because he is such a beautiful sight in full flight. He does, however, give an excellent exhibition of catching ‘prey’ in mid-flight. Having no parents to teach him, he is taking a long time to produce the distinctive call that is the ‘voice of Africa’. In public Othello only manages about half the call, though one of our falconers reckons that he has heard him do the full call in the privacy of his aviary. We look forward to the day when he can do a perfect demonstration of both his fishing ability and the wonderful call.