A DENR employee balances a sea hawk found in Batanes Island by crew members of a foreign vessel. (CDN PHOTO/ CARINE ASUTILLA)
A juvenile Osprey, sometimes called a fish eagle or sea hawk, was turned over to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Region 7, Wildlife Division on Thursday afternoon by a ship captain.
A crew member of a container ship found the eagle while they were navigating Batanes Island enroute to Taiwan on November 16, said Capt. Ruel Duque of the MV Chattanooga.
Duque and his crew decided to keep the bird and feed it until they returned to Cebu.
The eagle is about six months old and had just learned to fly, said Ariel Rica, chief of DENR’s Biodiversity and Wildlife Management Section.
He said the bird may have been at the coast looking for food like sea snakes or small fish.
“It must have gotten tired and decided to rest on the ship,” said Rica.
When the vessel arrived in Cebu on November 20, the ship captain took the eagle to the DENR.
Rica said his office will check the eagle’s condition before they set it free in its natural habitat.
The osprey is not an endangered species and is commonly found in the Philippines.