Crested Hawk Eagle and a Lesser Whistling Duck Encounter at Wilpattu National Park, Sri Lanka.

During the time I lived in Sri Lanka and during my regular visits to Sri Lanka, Wilpattu National Park didn’t disappoint me with unforgettable wildlife sightings and unforgettable experiences. This is where my passion for wildlife photography grew into great proportions. This is a story I wanted to tell for a while and finally got some spare time to blog about this extraordinary experience I had with a Crested Hawk Eagle Back in 2016, on a cold and foggy morning on one of my visits to the Wilpattu National Park.

Crested Hawk-Eagle with its prey

It was another wonderful morning, and my friend Eric planned a complete northern Sri Lanka trip on my return after a brief absence from Sri Lanka. We drove to Jaffna, Mannar, and on the way, we wanted to do a short one-night visit to Wilpattu. As it was just one night we decided to stay on the outskirts of the National Park where we have our beloved Hunuwilgama village friends. Our beloved friend Senavi graciously accommodated our night’s stay. We got up early in the morning around 5 am to go on our morning park safari.

Crested Hawk-Eagle with its prey

We went through the park entrance sharp at 6 am after paying for the park passes and we slowly ventured ourselves into the deep thick vegetation of the National Park on bumpy gravel roads. It was still dark, cold, and foggy. We were slowly approaching a famous Villu (Small Lake) called Nelum Villu inside the national park and we went past without any exciting sightings around the Villu.  As we entered into the thick vegetation again on a designated gravel road we spotted an eagle in the middle of the road. It was still slightly dark and as we were inside the canopy, lighting conditions were not so great to immediately identify the raptor.

Crested Hawk-Eagle with its prey

From the experience, we know raptors don’t land in the middle of the road unless they are preying on an animal. I could feel the adrenaline rush going through my veins as we slowly approached and stopped our safari Jeep in a comfortable distance to the raptor. It was a crested Hawk-Eagle and our excitement grew further as it was trying to strangle a lesser whistling duck. The prey was still alive and this skillful hunter tightly hanging onto its morning breakfast.

We could feel the pain and the struggle the lesser whistling duck was going through and the Hawk-eagle showed no interest in our presence. It was focused on the duck and as seconds turned into minutes we could see that the duck was going weaker and at one point the lesser whistling duck stopped moving.

Crested Hawk-Eagle with its prey

It was a sad ending to the lesser whistling duck but another success for this skillful hunter. Soon after the duck stopped moving, a crested hawk-eagle dragged the duck into the side of the road. At a completely unexpected moment, it lifted the duck and started flying and landed a few meters away from us in the middle of the road. Crested hawk-eagle continued to do these short flights a couple of times and finally settled into a nearby tree and perched on a branch with the dead duck to enjoy its morning breakfast.

Despite the low light conditions, I tried hard to capture this amazing moment and these are the results of that effort. It was another unforgettable and rare experience. We left the crested hawk-eagle alone and continued our safari allowing the raptor to enjoy its morning breakfast.

Crested Hawk-Eagle with its prey

Crested Hawk-Eagle with its prey

Crested Hawk-Eagle with its prey

A large bird of prey species of the family Accipitridae, The crested hawk-eagle (Nisaetus cirrhatus) is a common species across the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia.

COMMON NAME:  The crested hawk-eagle / Changeable hawk-eagle

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Nisaetus cirrhatus

DIET: Carnivor

SIZE: 60- 75 cm

HABITAT AND ECOLOGY:

With a long tail, short broad wings, and long but powerful legs, Changeable hawk-eagles are well adapted to hunt in denser wooded hunting grounds.  In Sri Lanka, I have observed them in the dry zone and common in Wilpattu National Park and Yala National Park.

GEOGRAPHIC RANGE:

Common species across the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

 The Lesser Whistling Duck 

Lesser Whistling Duck

 

The lesser whistling duck (Dendrocygna javanica) is a common, small tree-nesting duck distributed widely across lowland wetlands of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

COMMON NAME:  The lesser whistling duck

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Dendrocygna javanica

HABITAT AND ECOLOGY:

Lesser whistling duck is usually gregarious and found on shallow water bodies full of vegetation cover. The lesser whistling ducks feed on water plants and small fish, frogs, and invertebrates such as mollusks and worms.

GEOGRAPHIC RANGE:

Common resident species across the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

 https://ebird.org/species/lewduc1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesser_whistling_duck

https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/lewduc1/cur/introduction

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changeable_hawk-eagle

https://ebird.org/species/crehae1