African Fish Eagle and a Gymnogene!
Upon our drive back from Struisbaai we saw this famous Fish Eagle on a pole next to the road!
Information about the African Fish Eagle;
"The African fish eagle, or to distinguish it from the true fish eagles, the African sea eagle, is a large species of eagle found throughout sub-Saharan Africa wherever large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply occur. It is the national bird of Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and South Sudan. As a result of its large range, it is known in many languages. Examples of names include: visarend in Afrikaans, nkwazi in Chewa, aigle pêcheur in French, hungwe in Shona, and inkwazi"
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Fish_Eagle
Fierce and proud his call is known as the "Voice of Africa"!
Eyes that can see a fish from miles up in the sky!
And below we have the scarce Gymnogene!
Winter has driven them into the town suburbs!
One of a few predator birds that climbs trees in search of nests.
Feared by all smaller nesting birds!
Flies low searching from tree to tree.
Information on the Gymnogene;
"The African harrier-hawk, harrier hawk, or gymnogene is a bird of prey. It is about 60–66 centimetres in length. It breeds in most of Africa south of the Sahara. The only other member of the genus is the allopatric Madagascan harrier-hawk".
Source; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_harrier-hawk
I have tried to supply you here in the links with a more comprehensive overview of these two exceptional raptor birds.
We were so fortunate to see them in real life and my camera was very happy to put them on film.
Note: All photos and descriptions are mine except for the "Information" source, linked parts.
The photos are unedited and were cropped by me for uploading purposes.
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And I have forgotten, this post is also for #featheredfriday hosted by @melinda010100 and for #birding
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Thank you kindly!
Blessings to your work!
Hello!
This post has been manually curated, resteemed
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Much love to you from all of us at @helpie!
Keep up the great work!
Beautiful photography, nicely done!
Manually curated by @futuremind.
A sincere thank you!
Much love also to you guys!
Blessings!
Howdy sir papilloncharity! Great job of catching these magnificent birds! wow what a blessing!
Howdy Sir @janton, they were indeed great to capture on camera.
As they say, being in the right place at the right time.
Blessings!
Oh, I thought that was called skill. lol. Well what do they say?..I'd rather be lucky than good!
What magnificent birds! And good captures! So happy you had your camera ready upon spotting these beauties!
Thanks for sharing your wonderful photos and info on your native birds!
Thank you my friend.
When we travel long distances, Marian keeps my camera on her lap.
Most times when I spot something, I slow down, Marian holds the steering and I snap away.
In the fish eagle's case above, I stopped and climbed out and the gymnogene was taken in our back garden.
They are indeed two very famous birds over here.
Blessings!
Two great sightings, we have the Fish Eagle as local residents on our river here the Gymnogene I have never seen, this is some amazing posing for any avid photographer Stephen.
I am fortunate to have seen both several times now Lady Joan.
Always heard stories about the scarce Gynogene and the other day when I waited outside with my camera at the doctor's rooms and elderly lady came to tell me that they saw two of these huge strange birds with the yellow faces sitting on an air conditioner at their son's house.
I would love to get a couple together on camera.
Blessings and hope your weekend is going well.
The pretty/ugly birds each plays an integral role, have never seen one so would get me running around looking out for them if I knew they were in town.
Ha! They may just appear in your neck of the woods Lady Joan.
I will love you to get one on camera.
Blessings!
Mighty birds! Their talons and beaks look quite intimidating. With eyesight to see food sources a mile away they're rarely hungry :) Beautiful shots @papilloncharity. Blessings to you!
Mighty birds indeed my friend. Whenever the fish eagle catches a huge fish that is too big to lift out of the water, he simply drags the fish out on the side before ripping into it. The Gymnogene is known to attack anything that gets into the way of his prey. Real legendary birds.
Blessings and thank you!
Wow @papilloncharity, you were really fortunate getting such close up shots of these raptors, they are magnificent indeed!
Thank you my dear friend.
In the right place at the right time.
Blessings!
can see a fish from miles, wooooh
Oh yeah! Their sight is a hundred times better than humans!
Blessings!
yeah ditto
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STOPThese are gorgeous shots! Thank you for sharing!
My pleasure to share thank you my friend!
Blessings!