At the end of May Kenting National Park Headquarters’ expert ornithologist Specialist Liu Chuan went to Longluan Lake to observe birds and, much to his surprise as he scanned the sky to the south, he spotted a large bird of prey flying towards him. As soon as he saw he instinctively knew it was special (its wind span was wider than a fish eagle and its belly almost totally white.) The bird disappeared after he took more than 10 photographs. After enlarging the photographs it was tentatively identified as an adolescent white-belied sea eagle. After checking photographs of adolescents of this species online and enlisting the assistance of two expert ornithologists in Taipei, the sighting was confirmed as a white bellied sea eagle.  

The national park headquarters said that after the visit of a Japanese waxwing in March the  park’s avian diversity has been further increased by the visit of the white-bellied sea eagle. In addition to the white-bellied eagle, the pectoral sandpiper and black bittern and other rare visitors to Taiwan have also been recorded. Ornithologist’s paradise Longluan Lake has various bird species that can seen every day but also regularly serves up pleasant surprises.

White-bellied Sea Eagle file

• Scientific name：Haliaeetusleucogaster

• Size：70-85 long, the males and females are similar in size, the males around 75cm long and the females around 85cm, and have a wing span of around 2 meters.

• Characteristics：The adult bird has a white head, breast and tail. In flight the black wings and white belly contrast sharply. Like all sea eagles, it has a short wedge-shaped tail.

• Food：the white-bellied sea eagle’s main foods are marine vertebrates, such as fish, sea turtles and sea snakes; they will occasionally take floating carrion or attack other birds of prey, force them to loosen their grip and then take their prey.

• Habitat：Distributed across coastal areas and islands of south China, the Philippines, Indo-China, Indonesia, Papua Guinea, India and Australia.