The first time I saw Grey-headed Fish Eagle was in 2021, when I visited Little Guilin. I could not see it clearly from naked eyes or from my camera - it was too far. I saw it from a bird photographer's big lens. Later that morning, I saw a pair of grey headed fish eagles flying around and heard them making calls.
In 2023, I bought a big lens, a Tamron 150-500mm F/5-6.7 lens, and put it in use at Singapore Quarry, where there is a known nest for grey-headed fish eagles. With this big lens, I took many great pictures of grey-headed fish eagles. One or another fish eagle just perched on top of a tree stump, looking around.
With the big lens, I could see its hooked beak, penetrating eyes, brownish chest, white belly and grey head. After quite somewhile, It flew to the pond water surface to catch a fish, and apparently for this time, it was empty taloned.
These are the two locations that I saw grey-headed fish eagles - mostly solo, and quiet.
In early October, we went to Little Guilin again. Bringing my big lens with me, we looked forward to seeing the eagles again. We did not spot them initially, but knowing where it would perch, we kept looking from different angles, and finally saw an eagle on the tree by the cliff, where it was before!
It was interesting to know that we could only see it at certain angles.
A couple weeks later, I heard a hoarse barking call near Keppel Wetland at Singapore Botanic Garden. I looked around for a minute or so, and finally saw a big bird perched on a bare branch of a big tree across the pond from where I stood. It was a grey-headed fish eagle! First time I saw grey-headed fish eagle at the Garden.
The following Saturday, when I was at Keppel Wetland, I looked up at the same tree, I saw a grey-headed fish eagle, quietly perching on a tree branch.
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| no big lens this time, but it was clearly a grey-headed fish eagle |
A grey-headed fish eagle moved to Singapore Botanic Garden!
There are ponds here with fishes. Many kingfishers live here, why not fish eagles?
Is this migration natural or man-made? Either way I am pleased, and hoping to see it catching fish one day.
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ChatGPT revision
That’s a beautiful field note — full of genuine curiosity and appreciation for nature. Here’s a shorter, publication-ready version — concise, reflective, and with a natural storytelling tone suitable for a nature blog, newsletter, or magazine feature:
The Grey-headed Fish Eagle
My first encounter with the Grey-headed Fish Eagle was in 2021 at Little Guilin. The bird was perched far away—barely visible to the naked eye. A fellow bird photographer let me look through his powerful lens, and there it was: regal, still, surveying the world below. Later that morning, I saw a pair gliding above the cliffs, calling to each other across the lake.
Two years later, with a new Tamron 150–500mm lens in hand, I visited Singapore Quarry, where these eagles are known to nest. This time, the details came alive: the hooked beak, grey head, brown chest, white belly, and those sharp, watchful eyes. I watched one launch from its perch, swoop over the pond, and rise again—empty-taloned but magnificent.
I’ve seen them now in two places—Little Guilin and Singapore Quarry—often solitary and quiet, always commanding. On a return trip to Little Guilin this October, I found one again on its familiar tree by the cliff, visible only from just the right angle, as if reminding me that nature always reveals itself on its own terms.
Weeks later, a familiar hoarse cry echoed across Keppel Wetland in the Botanic Gardens. I looked up—and there it was, perched high on a bare branch. A Grey-headed Fish Eagle, right in the city’s green heart. It’s appeared there twice since.
Perhaps it has moved in, drawn by the ponds full of fish and the company of kingfishers. Whether this shift is natural or man-made, I’m simply grateful—to witness its quiet majesty, and to know that even in the city, wildness endures.
