AMANZIMTOTI is very fortunate to have a breeding pair of African fish eagle in the Toti river valley.
This magnificent bird’s voice is a beautiful, loud ‘whow, kayow, kwow’, mostly at dawn.
It also calls when soaring through the air.
It perches for hours in tall trees near water and hunts from its perch, stooping at fish which it catches with its feet. It may submerge and often robs other fish -eating birds of their prey.
It feeds mainly on fish up to 1kg but up to maximum of 3.7kgs and also eats carrion, chicks and eggs and some waterbirds up to the size of flamingos.
It has been known to even catch and eat dassie, monkeys and monitor lizards.
Peak breeding season is June to July. The nest is a pile of sticks lined with grass, green leaves and reeds, high up from four to 22 metres in the fork of a tree.
It produces one to two chicks who are dependant on their parents for 60 days after they first fly.
Its Zulu name is iNkwazi.
