Haliaeetus leucogaster (Gmelin, 1788)

Bishop, K. David, 2023, The avifauna of Biak Island, Papua, Indonesia with comments on status, conservation, natural history and taxonomy, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 143 (1), pp. 3-62 : 37

*WHITE-BELLIED SEA EAGLE Haliaeetus leucogaster

Local name Man Gan Gan (Sansundi; Soeparno 1977).

Range Biak, Owi, Yapen.

Status Unclear. Widespread throughout lowland New Guinea (Beehler & Pratt 2016) . On Biak just six records: August 1989: P. Green (in litt. to D. Holmes) saw an adult flying across a bay on the north coast; 1991: Gibbs (1993) listed the species for the Warafri area; November 1996: Richardson (1997) saw an immature; January 1997: 1‒2 at Sansundi (SvB); 24 August 2008: one in the Warafri area (A. Whitlock, eBird checklist S48329087); 13 January 1994: one on Owi (P. Gregory in litt. 2000). The paucity of records of this large, unmistakable species may be related to the relative abundance of Aquila gurneyi on Biak. Despite making a concerted effort to locate raptors, Germi et al. (2013) failed to record it in February 2011. There are no records for anywhere else in the Teluk Cenderawasih Islands except Yapen (Beehler & Pratt 2016), so presence on Biak may involve wanderers from the latter.