Subject: Steppe Eagle again at Mai Po - Sat 28 March [Print This Page] Author: kmike Time: 29/03/2009 18:19 Subject: Steppe Eagle again at Mai Po - Sat 28 March
Yesterday morning the Steppe Eagle was again seen at Mai Po from the Tower Hide at around 10:00.
It gave very good views as it seemed happy to soar around at no great height above the reedbed area beyond Pond 8.
The key feature was the long, broad and pale underwing bar (which seperates from all eagles except Crested Serpent Eagle (which it definitely wasn't!) and a tawny coloured back and head, with a pale rump, and darker flight feathers, with fine pale fringes to the coverts.
Cheers
Mike K Author: ajohn Time: 31/03/2009 13:27
The Steppe Eagle was seen again today (31st March 2009), along the Mai Po Access Road. Very good views were obtained of the bird perched in a tree for about 1.5 hours, then flyaing away to the south.
The bird seems to have undertaken an extensive body moult since the excellent first pictures by Daniel (http://www.hkbws.org.hk/BBS/view ... &extra=page%3D1), so is now much darker on the body with contrastingly paler lesser/median coverts. The pale underwing bar was not quite as obvious in flight as might be expected, but was still clearly visible on good views. The pale trailing edge to the secondaries and greater coverts was very obvious, however (similar to 1st-year Spotted Eagle).
Anyone visiting Mai Po at the moment should pay very close attention to any large eagle, just in case.
I'm very glad that Daniel posted the pictures which brought people's attention to this bird, and especially that it seems to have stayed long enough for some of us to catch up with it!
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