7 July mid-afternoon: the female was incubating when the male brought in a large whiting, which was still alive. Both birds looked at it for a while - still flapping, right on the eggs. While the male just flew off, the female finally pecked at the fish, then dragged it away from the eggs by its head. She secured it in her talons and flew off to eat it. Eggs safe fortunately.
The Catch Since the first egg was laid, the male has been bringing fish to the female on the nest. She either eats there or flies off to eat at one of their favourite roosts nearby, out of camera range. He has brought mainly fish and often delivers them minus the head. In 25 days, he brought 32 items of food: 10 mullet, 14 good-sized bream, 2 whiting, 8 unidentified fish, 1 gull, 1 Common Myna and 1 unknown. One mullet was so big she left it on the edge of the nest overnight, before making several meals of it during the day.
Both eagles are incubating, keeping the eggs covered in the cold Sydney weather. Both birds sometimes appear reluctant to "handover" egg duty. The male is sitting tight when the female flies in and she forcefully pushes him aside before settling on the eggs herself. The male appears to launch himself straight at the camera. The action has been slowed down, showing his magnificent wing beats as he drops from the nest and flies off.
Nest duty Both birds seem to be very keen to incubate, though the female is spending longer than the male. He sometimes tries to cover the eggs, but flies off again when she will not move. We have observed the female on the eggs at first light each day as well as last thing in the evening, so assume she sits all night.
During nest renovation and now during incubation, the male brings food to the female on the nest. He left this large mullet, minus the head and guts, which seems to be the norm. She took this fish off to feed elsewhere. Now she more often feeds on the nest.
The male flew in clutching something in one foot - we were surprised to identify it as a Common Myna. As he flew off the female came in and took over the food. She picked at it a little and then flew off with it to eat elsewhere we presume. She had some difficulty as her talons or the myna were entangled in the nest branches.
Both eagles are struggling to place sticks just where they want. At times, both attempt to place the same stick. The female is the larger bird, with more heavily-feathered legs. At other times, the eagles may bring a stick in and stay briefly before flying off. We have not been able to record on camera just how they collect the nest materials.
Eagle Journal
A glimpse of the second egg with both parents in the nest
Female incubating her first egg laid on 20 June
The female has moved to the left - The massive nest can be clearly seen with the bowl of the nest lined with fresh green leaves.
Both eagles arranging sticks - The female (on the right) is just landing with a large stick.
One of the eagles renovating the nest
One of the eagles monitoring the nest
The carefully arranged nest
Close-up of the nest with lining and branches
A glimpse of the second egg with both parents in the nest
Female incubating her first egg laid on 20 June
The female has moved to the left - The massive nest can be clearly seen with the bowl of the nest lined with fresh green leaves.
Both eagles arranging sticks - The female (on the right) is just landing with a large stick.
One of the eagles renovating the nest
One of the eagles monitoring the nest
The carefully arranged nest
Close-up of the nest with lining and branches
4 July 2010 – There are definitely 2 eggs in the nest now, which we have suspected for some time. The second egg is obviously cleaner than the first. It will be interesting to try to determine when the second egg was laid. The first egg was covered by one or other of the eagles right from laying.
22 June 2010 – At daybreak one of the birds was incubating, but soon stood and left the nest. The egg was uncovered for about 20 minutes, before the female returned. She sat briefly before beginning to feed on a fish that was in the nest. She fed, standing on the rim, for about 30 minutes, watched by the male for some of the time. She then flew off again and the male settled to incubate. It was quite cold, so it is interesting to see the egg left uncovered. The bowl of the nest is neatly lined with green leaves though. 20 June 2010 – The female laid this morning at 6:36am at first light just before sunrise. Shortly after the male brought a small fish to the nest. We shall be watching closely to see if another egg is laid in the next few days. 16 June 2010 – Nest renovation has continued for 4 weeks since the cameras were installed on 14 May. While the cameras were being installed by our man high in the tree, the eagles circled overhead or watched from their favourite roost tree nearby. They returned to renovate their nest and were recorded from the next morning. Unless the birds keep adding sticks to the rim, we should be able to bring you excellent footage of the action. As can be seen from the photos, the nest is huge now, with successive pairs using the same site each year.
30 May 2010 – The White-bellied Sea-Eagles have returned to their nest near the Birds Australia Discovery Centre in Sydney Olympic Park for the third consecutive year and can again be seen live on EagleCam inside the Discovery Centre. This year, the camera position is slightly more elevated than last year giving a wonderful view into the nest from high in the adjacent trees. As part of the ongoing study, we hope to provide continuous footage of the whole breeding cycle at the nest from May to November.
Spying on the Sea-Eagles
The White-bellied Sea-Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster) is a fairly common sight along the coasts and inland rivers of Australia, as well as further afield. Even as our second largest raptor, little is known about their complete breeding cycle, from nest building to fledging. The huge nest of large sticks is commonly placed in a high tree and the nest may be used for many years in succession.
The Parramatta River Sea-Eagles are often seen during the day on their prominent mangrove perch, loafing or feeding on a mullet or other fish from the wetlands. They may also be seen soaring overhead on up-swept wings. The nest is placed high in a Scribbly Gum in the Newington Nature Reserve and has been used by a succession of Sea-Eagles over the years. Each year the nest has been monitored and valuable observations made.
Volunteers from the Birds Australia Discovery Centre and Sydney Olympic Park Rangers placed cameras high in the nest tree. This will provide a wonderful opportunity to closely monitor daytime breeding behaviour at the nest. Already many interesting observations have been made, after looking at the recordings (a big job in itself). In the first month of nest-renovation in 2009, Jon Irvine recorded at least 184 sticks being brought to the nest. The male brought 75% of the sticks and at least 40% of his visits to the nest involved bringing sticks. The female brought 25% of the sticks and for at least 18% of her visits she was bringing sticks. The female however was responsible for bringing the vast majority of green leaves. Both birds arrange the sticks and leaves, and spend time arranging and renovating. The significance of the green leaves lining the nest is not understood: it is suggested the leaves may be for camouflage, have antiseptic properties or have some social relevance.
Eagle Watch continues and anyone visiting the Discovery Centre during opening times on weekends may watch the live action as well as recordings of previous interesting behaviour.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank our EagleCam supporters, who have donated their time, skill and financial assistance: Jon Irvine Geoff Hutchinson Judy Harrington Sue Marlin Graham Weule Joan Rosenthal Bruce Frost Alison Doyle Comsec TR Pty Ltd The Stump Guy Tree Care Sydney Olympic Park Authority Discovery Centre Volunteers
About BA 
Spying on the Sea-Eagles