Classroom lesson · Wildlife · 🇿🇲 Zambia

African fish eagle

The 'voice of Africa' - and the bird on Zambia's national emblem

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

The African fish eagle is a large bird of prey with a white head, white chest and chocolate-brown wings. It lives along rivers and lakes across Zambia and most of Africa. It is so closely connected with the country that it appears on Zambia's flag and national emblem.

Tell me more

African fish eagles eat (you guessed it) fish. They sit on a high branch by a river or lake, watching the water. When they spot a fish near the surface, they swoop down with talons out and snatch it from the water without even getting their feathers really wet. The strike takes less than a second.

Their call is one of the most famous sounds in Africa. It is a high, ringing, slightly sad cry that echoes for miles along a river - 'kyow-kow-kow'. People call it the 'voice of Africa' because for many travellers it is the sound they remember most after a visit. Once you have heard it, it is unforgettable.

African fish eagles pair up for life. The same male and female stay together for many years, returning to the same nest year after year. They both look after the chicks. Their nests are huge bundles of sticks at the top of a tall tree - sometimes a metre wide.

The eagle on Zambia's flag and on the coat of arms is the African fish eagle. It represents the spirit of freedom and the ability to rise above problems. Zambian schoolchildren learn about it in their very first geography lessons.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01Why might a country choose a bird as a national symbol? What does the eagle say about Zambia?
  2. 02African fish eagles return to the same nest every year. What is a place you would want to come back to again and again?
  3. 03What is the most memorable natural sound where you live - a bird, a river, the wind?
Try this

Classroom activity

Listen (with a teacher's help) to a recording of an African fish eagle's call. Then everyone closes their eyes and tries to copy the cry. Vote on whose is closest. Now draw the bird on the Zambian flag and label its white head, brown body and yellow beak.