A white-tailed sea eagle has been on Kaua'i since December, and it is so rare for a raptor to arrive naturally in the Islands that some folks believe it may have flown to O'ahu. But others suggest the O'ahu eagle may not be the same bird, because some admittedly fuzzy shots seem to indicate different characteristics and coloration.

Michael Walther, of O'ahu Wildlife Tours, took some distant photos on Sunday and was back out at Pearl Harbor today with other birders trying to locate and identify the bird. He took some photos of what he said was clearly a raptor, but from such a long distance away that no firm identification was possible.

"It may not be the white-tailed eagle. There is some talk that it could be a Steller's sea eagle or a black kite," said Brenda Zaun, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Kaua'i, who has seen the Kaua'i eagle as recently as Wednesday, and has been monitoring birding chat groups.

One O'ahu resident, Rick Koehler, of Kailua, said he spotted an eagle last week Tuesday standing near a waterway in the Kailua area.

"It looked like some kind of hawk or eagle. It was unusual," he said.

Fisherman Kea Chun on Friday reported seeing an eagle killing a cattle egret at Iroquois Point north of Pearl Harbor.

On Saturday, Manoa resident Patricia Hertz said she saw a white-tailed eagle soaring over Wa'ahila Ridge, and saw it stop flying at one point and rest in a cliff area of the Manoa Valley wall. She photographed it, but from such a distance that identification is difficult. She said she could have taken a closer shot, but didn't because she did not realize it was anything special.

"I'm from California. I've seen eagle. This one clearly had a white tail," she said.