The Crested Hawk Eagle (CHE) is a raptor that is a widespread resident of India; its a shy bird of prey and rarely sits in an open perch. It will allow humans as close as 30-50 feet, before getting spooked, except when it is hunting.
This is the experience of people travelling on a jeep safari into the Bandipur Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka,
India:
We had this rare encounter with the CHE. It was during one of the morning safaris where we had a good sighting of Asiatic Elephants, the Indian Gaur, a couple of species of Woodpecker and a Crested Serpent Eagle. We had almost reached the end of the safari, and were on our way back, when suddenly this CHE came flying past our jeep and landed on a tree, by the side of the tracks, about 75 feet from us. As our jeep was getting closer to the CHE, it descended on the forest floor at the base of a tree.
A CHE on the ground is not something seen very often and we took the opportunity to get to as close as within 20-25 feet (way inside the comfort zone of Raptors). All the cameras in the jeep were firing away. The CHE completely ignored us and was intently looking into a hollow at the base of the tree – laying in wait for its prey! We were sure that there was a small mammal in the tree hollow that had rushed there seconds before, trying to escape the claws of the CHE. We were fortunate to witness this hustling behavior of this majestic raptor. It kept alternating between sitting on a low-hanging branch of the tree intently looking into the tree hollow and then descending on it and trying to find a way to get into it. Then finally after 15 minutes into the routine, with no signs of the prey coming out, it gave up the hunt and flew away.
From www.walkthewilderness.net
We had this rare encounter with the CHE. It was during one of the morning safaris where we had a good sighting of Asiatic Elephants, the Indian Gaur, a couple of species of Woodpecker and a Crested Serpent Eagle. We had almost reached the end of the safari, and were on our way back, when suddenly this CHE came flying past our jeep and landed on a tree, by the side of the tracks, about 75 feet from us. As our jeep was getting closer to the CHE, it descended on the forest floor at the base of a tree.
A CHE on the ground is not something seen very often and we took the opportunity to get to as close as within 20-25 feet (way inside the comfort zone of Raptors). All the cameras in the jeep were firing away. The CHE completely ignored us and was intently looking into a hollow at the base of the tree – laying in wait for its prey! We were sure that there was a small mammal in the tree hollow that had rushed there seconds before, trying to escape the claws of the CHE. We were fortunate to witness this hustling behavior of this majestic raptor. It kept alternating between sitting on a low-hanging branch of the tree intently looking into the tree hollow and then descending on it and trying to find a way to get into it. Then finally after 15 minutes into the routine, with no signs of the prey coming out, it gave up the hunt and flew away.
From www.walkthewilderness.net
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