Changeable Hawk-Eagles may change the colour, not the menu | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Epaper
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Banking
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Friday
May 30, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Epaper
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Banking
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
FRIDAY, MAY 30, 2025
Changeable Hawk-Eagles may change the colour, not the menu

Panorama

Enam Ul Haque
09 April, 2022, 11:45 am
Last modified: 09 April, 2022, 12:32 pm

Related News

  • Rough weather slows down Chattogram Port operations
  • Govt opens 220 shelter centres to tackle rain-spawn disasters in Bandarban 
  • 2 missing after being swept away by strong currents in Khagrachari rivers
  • Under-construction embankment collapse kills child in Bhola
  • Speaking about country’s issues in foreign trips won’t solve them: Khasru takes jibe at Yunus

Changeable Hawk-Eagles may change the colour, not the menu

A lonely Hawk-Eagle has been living in Bheduria for nearly a decade. The forlorn bird found a mate and started to build a nest there in December last year

Enam Ul Haque
09 April, 2022, 11:45 am
Last modified: 09 April, 2022, 12:32 pm
Changeable Hawk-Eagle in India. Photo: Enam Ul Haque
Changeable Hawk-Eagle in India. Photo: Enam Ul Haque

Quietly we stood huddled behind the shacks of a village named Bheduria, expecting to see a pair of Changeable Hawk-Eagles bring some twigs to their nest high up in a Rain Tree. We were visiting the village in Bhola implicitly to observe that a remarkable pair of rare raptors start a family.

A lonely Hawk-Eagle has been living in Bheduria for nearly a decade. We were delighted to learn that the forlorn bird found a mate and started to build a nest there in December last year. We decided to visit the village in March this year, by which time we expected the newlyweds to complete the unhurried work of nest-building.

We intended to observe the just-married couple of Hawk-Eagles at Bheduria over a full day. The good people of the hamlet did not seem to mind our protracted presence in their backyard, even though it interfered with some of the chores of the housewives.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

To the youngsters of Bheduria, we were as much the VIPs as the Changeable Hawk-Eagles were to us. To them, the Eagles were just a couple of regular birds of the village, and we were the unfamiliar visitors. Only to us, it was worthwhile to see a pair of nesting birds the whole day.

Changeable Hawk-Eagle in Bheduria. Photo: Enam Ul Haque
Changeable Hawk-Eagle in Bheduria. Photo: Enam Ul Haque

The last nest of the Changeable Hawk-Eagle we monitored was in the Sal Forest at Sreepur some 15 years ago. Sadly, the chick did not fledge successfully out of that nest. Unfortunately, the population of Hawk-Eagle has been dropping very fast in Bangladesh ever since.

Changeable Hawk-Eagle is not doing too well in most of the countries of the Orient that are the bird's only home. The growing scarcity and poisoning of its prey, such as snakes, lizards, frogs, rats, squirrels, shrews and birds, seem to be the main reasons for its decline.

Sadly, four of the ten species of Hawk-Eagles of the world are in serious trouble: one has been termed critical, and three are dubbed endangered. The two species we have in our country, the Changeable Hawk-Eagle and the Mountain Hawk-Eagle, are both doing poorly here, although not yet of serious concern elsewhere.

We waited patiently in vain for quite some time in the grove; no Hawk-Eagle showed up. The nest on the fork of the Rain Tree lacked a lining of green leaves and looked incomplete. The Hawk-Eagle usually adds a pad of green leaves on top of the piles of sticks before laying its single egg.

We decided to walk through the village, and the paddy fields hoping to spot the Hawk-Eagles come swooping down on their prey somewhere. We also expected to hear the high-pitched calls and the piercing screams of the male sooner or later.

The Hawk-Eagles of Bheduria had quite a different game-plan. They came and alighted on the nesting tree as soon as we left the grove, and the jamboree of the curious villagers dispersed. But the birds did not evade us very long; we were soon informed of their arrival, thanks to the omnipresent mobile phones.

Nest of Changeable Hawk-Eagle in Bheduria. Photo: Enam Ul Haque
Nest of Changeable Hawk-Eagle in Bheduria. Photo: Enam Ul Haque

We were obliged to race on the bumpy borders of the paddy field to return to the grove we departed from only an hour before. We saw a stern Changeable Hawk-Eagle sitting on the Rain Tree and staring at the small crowd gathering on the ground.

The Hawk-Eagle sat upright, gripping an ample branch assertively as if the bird owned not only the tree but the entire grove. We were reminded of the fusion of ferocity and grace of raptors superbly expressed by Ted Hughes in a few unforgettable lines of his celebrated poem titled Hawk Roosting.

The convenience of the high trees!
The air's buoyancy and the sun's ray
Are of advantage to me;

While enchanted by the elegance of its streaked white feathers shining in the sun, we knew that the bird would moult and look dark chocolate very soon. Every year it abandons its graceful white dress and dons a sinister dark garb for a few months. That is why it is called Changeable Hawk-Eagle.

We returned to the grove of Bheduria several times that day to see how often the Hawk-Eagles visited their nest. We saw the birds enter the grove once more but not go near the nest. No stick or leaf was added to the nest. The birds did not seem to be in a hurry to complete the nest and use it soon.

Changeable Hawk-Eagle undertakes procreation at a leisurely pace. It commences its first courtship at four years of age that lasts for months. The female incubates her single egg for seven long weeks when the male has to feed her. After the egg hatches, the chick has to be fed for ten weeks before it fledges.

Changeable Hawk-Eagle in a dark phase. Photo: Enam Ul Haque
Changeable Hawk-Eagle in a dark phase. Photo: Enam Ul Haque

During the seven weeks of incubation, the male Hawk-Eagle has to feed two mouths; and in the subsequent ten weeks, the pair must feed three, including a ravenous chick. It is bound to be hard for the hunters like them to find daily sustenance when we are determined to eliminate their prey from our country.

It is dreadful but conceivable for the just-married Hawk-Eagles of Bheduria to fail to garner enough energy over the next five months to complete their nest, lay an egg, incubate and raise the chick. We do not know how many bad days they will have in the coming months when they will find nothing to hunt.

Changeable Hawk-Eagles are able to change their colours periodically, but not their menu. No Hawk-Eagle should be tempted to hunt the domestic chickens or ducklings of Bheduria. It is better for the Eagle to spend a few hungry days and even miss a breeding season than to face persecution or eviction from the last piece of land at the edge of the Bay of Bengal.

Features / Top News

Bangladesh / Nature / Birds / Hawk / Eagles / Wildlife

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus meets Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru in Japan on 30 May 2025. Photo: CA Office
    Bangladesh, Japan to sign Economic Partnership Agreement by year-end
  • File photo of BNP BNP Standing Committee Member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury
    Speaking about country’s issues in foreign trips won’t solve them: Khasru takes jibe at Yunus
  • Representational image. Photo: Collected
    'Heavy to very heavy' rainfall expected across country as land depression weakens further

MOST VIEWED

  • Photo: Courtesy
    New notes featuring historic, archaeological structures of Bangladesh to be circulated from 1 June
  • Two Memoranda of Understanding were signed at the seminar titled “Bangladesh Seminar on Human Resources,” in Tokyo on 29 May 2025. Photo: CA Press Wing
    Japan to recruit 100,000 Bangladeshi workers over next 5 years
  • BAT Bangladesh has to vacate Mohakhali HQ as SC rejects lease appeal
    BAT Bangladesh has to vacate Mohakhali HQ as SC rejects lease appeal
  • Representational Photo: Collected
    Country's all jewellery shops to remain indefinitely closed in protest of VP Reponul's arrest: Bajus
  • Khondoker Rashed Maqsood. File Photo: Collected
    Investors urge removal of BSEC chairman in meeting with CA’s special assistant, submit list of demands
  • Illustration: TBS
    Bangladesh repays $3.5b foreign debt in 10 months of FY25

Related News

  • Rough weather slows down Chattogram Port operations
  • Govt opens 220 shelter centres to tackle rain-spawn disasters in Bandarban 
  • 2 missing after being swept away by strong currents in Khagrachari rivers
  • Under-construction embankment collapse kills child in Bhola
  • Speaking about country’s issues in foreign trips won’t solve them: Khasru takes jibe at Yunus

Features

Babar Ali, Ikramul Hasan Shakil, and Wasfia Nazreen are leading a bold resurgence in Bangladeshi mountaineering, scaling eight-thousanders like Everest, Annapurna I, and K2. Photos: Collected

Back to 8000 metres: How Bangladesh’s mountaineers emerged from a decade-long pause

5h | Panorama
Photos: Courtesy

Behind the looks: Bangladeshi designers shaping celebrity fashion

7h | Mode
Photo collage of the sailors and their catch. Photos: Shahid Sarkar

Between sky and sea: The thrilling life afloat on a fishing ship

11h | Features
For hundreds of small fishermen living near this delicate area, sustainable fishing is a necessity for their survival. Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain

World Ocean Day: Bangladesh’s ‘Silent Island’ provides a fisheries model for the future

1d | The Big Picture

More Videos from TBS

Six Lakh Sacrificial Animals Ready in Sirajganj for Eid-ul-Adha

Six Lakh Sacrificial Animals Ready in Sirajganj for Eid-ul-Adha

2h | TBS Stories
Six MoUs signed during Chief Advisor's visit to Japan

Six MoUs signed during Chief Advisor's visit to Japan

5h | TBS Today
Record migrant deaths in 2024

Record migrant deaths in 2024

1d | Podcast
Govt likely to trim subsidies in new budget

Govt likely to trim subsidies in new budget

9h | TBS Insight
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net