The majority of the tawny eagles (Aquila vindhiana) build their nests in December.  By the middle of January many of the eggs have yielded nestlings which are covered with white down.  In size and appearance the tawny eagle is not unlike a kite.  The shape of the tail, however, enables the observer to distinguish between the two species at a glance.  The tail of the kite is long and forked, while that of the eagle is short and rounded at the extremity.  The Pallas’s fishing-eagles (Haliaetus leucoryphus) are likewise busy feeding their young.  These fine birds are readily identified by the broad white band in the tail.  Their loud resonant but unmelodious calls make it possible to recognise them when they are too far off for the white tail band to be distinguished.

This species is called a fishing-eagle; but it does not indulge much in the piscatorial art.  It prefers to obtain its food by robbing ospreys, kites, marsh-harriers and other birds weaker than itself.  So bold is it that it frequently swoops down and carries off a dead or wounded duck shot by the sportsman.  Another raptorial bird of which the nest is likely to be found in January is the Turumti or red-headed merlin (Aesalon chicquera).  The nesting season of this ferocious pigmy extends from January to May, reaching its height during March in the United Provinces and during April in the Punjab.

As a general rule birds begin nesting operations in the Punjab from fifteen to thirty days later than in the United Provinces.  Unless expressly stated the times mentioned in this calendar relate to the United Provinces.  The nest of the red-headed merlin is a compact circular platform, about twelve inches in diameter, placed in a fork near the top of a tree.

The attention of the observer is often drawn to the nests of this species, as also to those of other small birds of prey and of the kite, by the squabbles that occur between them and the crows.  Both species of crow seem to take great delight in teasing raptorial birds.  Sometimes two or three of the corvi act as if they had formed a league for the prevention of nest-building on the part of white-eyed buzzards, kites, shikras and other of the lesser birds of prey.  The modus operandi of the league is for two or more of its members to hie themselves to the tree in which the victim is building its nest, take up positions near that structure and begin to caw derisively.  This invariably provokes the owners of the nest to attack the black villains, who do not resist, but take to their wings.  The angry, swearing builders follow in hot pursuit for a short distance and then fly back to the nest.  After a few minutes the crows return.  Then the performance is repeated; and so on, almost ad infinitum.  The result is that many pairs of birds of prey take three weeks or longer to construct a nest which they could have completed within a week had they been unmolested.