Now it is the turn to know everything related to the harpy eagle, an incredible bird that has a quite striking visual aspect, it is an imposing bird with immense abilities to go after its prey and hunt it, in the following article you will be able to know everything related with this powerful predator and establish some better ideas around it.
What is the harpy eagle?
This is a species of eagle considered as a Ave neotropical. In some places it is known as an American harpy eagle, in this way it differs from the famous Papuan eagle. This is a bird of prey considered to be the most powerful and largest found in all of America. This eagle belongs to the species of these birds that there are more on the planet, it is generally located in tropical forests and what is known as the lowlands.
Due to the fact that its natural habitat has been destroyed by man, it has had a certain disappearance, at least in what is known as Central America, this magnificent animal has practically disappeared in its entirety.
Characteristics of this eagle
harpy eagle characteristics, we highlight that its entire upper part is covered with beautiful black feathers, its lower part is mostly white, except for the feathered tarsi, since these have many black stripes. In the entire upper part of the chest there is a black band that crosses it and is responsible for separating its entire gray head from the part of the belly which is white.
The gray tone of its head is pale, it is covered by a double-type crest, on the upper part of the harpy eagle's tail you can see a black color and also a gray part that is divided into three bands. The lower part of it has three white bands and the rest is totally black, the iris of the harpy eagle has colors that vary between red, brown or gray, its beak tends to be black and everything that are the tarsi and fingers of its feet are yellow.
Both the male and the female have the same plumage, the tarsus of these eagles can measure up to 13 centimeters, the female harpy eagle weighs between 6 and 9 Kg, when we talk about a captive female we can refer to the special case of one known as "Jezebel" who came to have a maximum weight of 13 kg which was too much, the opposite case of the male who is usually very small reaching a maximum weight of 4,8 kg.
The length of the harpy eagle is 86 to 107 centimeters long, but its wingspan is 176 to 224 centimeters and the tail of this animal measures 37 to 42 centimeters. Although this is considered the largest eagle, in some cases the Philippine eagle is observed, which is longer, as well as the Steller's sea eagle, the harpy eagle is considered to have a small wingspan since many others in more open habitats they surpass her like the extinct eagle Haast.
As for the consideration of harpy eagle size It can be considered as large, due to the measures expressed above, which makes this animal something spectacular, adding the fact that its flight is practically perfect, for this reason it becomes so striking in the eyes of others.
habitat of it
It is a fairly rare animal in terms of the place or area where it is distributed. The harpy eagle is found in a wide radius that goes from as far south as possible (Argentina), also excepting some parts of Panama, passing through all of South America and Central America until reaching the area of Mexico. The well-known lowlands and tropical jungles are the natural habitat of these, for that reason he is looking for this area as it is the one that best suits his style.
In general terms, the height where she prefers to be is approximately below 900 meters, although these have been seen at heights of up to about 2000 meters, especially when entering the tropical forest. Their style of hunting is either on the ground or also in the canopy, to look for their prey they hide in the trees, in those areas where nature is affected they will not be seen, but to hunt they can go to the famous mosaics forestry.
The behavior and feeding of the harpy eagle
This is an eagle with incredible agility to hunt, in the food chain this animal is above, this means that it has no established natural predators. As their main hunting objective, all those animals that make life on the trees are named, they also feel attraction towards monkeys and sloths. According to investigative work, it has been proven that the sloths that attract him are the Bradypus variegatus and Choloepus didactylus.
The type of monkeys that this eagle likes are marmosets, spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys, saki monkeys, others of small sizes ignore them, such as capuchins. It should also be noted that he likes animals such as porcupines, squirrels, among others. Their hunting activities are not limited to animals of this style, they are also capable of hunting macaws and if they have the opportunity to attack animals such as deer, they wait for them to be close to a tree to attack and eat them.
Domestic livestock is a highly requested prey for this eagle, including chickens, pigs and also small lambs. This is a situation that does not occur much if we take into account the life of these eagles in normal situations, to hunt they use their huge claws which measure approximately 13 centimeters and the pressure they are capable of applying is 42 kgf / cm2, if they decide to use both claws to the best of their abilities.
reproduction process
When the harpy eagle is in its true habitat, it places its nests very close to those made by other eagles. In certain places in countries such as Guyana and also Panama, it can be seen how they are placed up to 3km away. On the other hand, in Venezuela, nests of these are observed less than 5 km away, the same monitoring has been done in Peru, verifying this distance at 7,4 km and in terms of the area occupied by their pairs for reproduction, it is 4300 hectares.
In those forests that are not so suitable, the territories used by the eagles for their young can be observed, which are estimated at about 25km, the female harpy eagle lays two white eggs, this makes nests made with branches. The depth of these is 1,2 meters and a width of 1,5 meters ensuring a capacity to be used for many years, these nests are located in the main branches of the trees at heights of approximately 16 to 43 meters.
This animal constantly builds its nest in trees like the Kapok, this belongs to the tallest trees in South America. Many cultures in this part of the world consider it bad luck to cut down Ceibas, since these help in a fairly broad way to protect the habitat not only of the harpy eagle, but also of many other birds and animals that make life in these areas. The mating of this bird is not exactly known.
mating ritual
The harpy eagle mating ritual is not really known as it should be. It is presumed that these eagles mate for their entire lives and as far as is known, a pair of these reproduces approximately every 2 or 3 years. This is after the first chick is obtained just as it hatches from the egg, there is a second egg that is ignored, in normal situations it will not finish its process unless the first egg is lost.
This egg is incubated for a period of approximately 56 days. By the time the son of this eagle is 36 days old, he is able to get up on his own and begin to walk, making clumsy movements. Its parents will feed it in a period of 6 to 10 months, most of the food brought to the nest is by the male, while the female is incubating her eggs, these birds are considered sexually mature when they reach a age 4 to 6 years.
In particular, the male tends to be aggressive when he notices that humans approach the site where the harpy eagle makes its nests, whether they come to take away their habitat or for any other reason, since they are very delicate with their family, seeing any attempt to approach people as a possible threat not only for the little ones, but for the couple who is in charge of taking care of them.
The harpy eagle and the danger of extinction
Currently, this eagle continues to reproduce, but it has been noted that its population has dropped quite noticeably. The main threat to their lives is the destruction of their habitat, this is due to the fact that the exploitation of the forests and also agriculture, like other industries, have destroyed this in order to expand, even becoming a great danger for the people who have established themselves in places near this habitat.
As a second threat, it is taken into account that the hunting of this bird has increased a lot, this is also due to the fact that since they usually attack livestock, people seek to hunt them to protect them. It is a process that does not happen much, but it usually happens often and due to the way in which the harpy eagle behaves, it becomes a tempting target for all people who practice hunting.
These types of threats exist throughout the area where they move, that is, their distribution area. Due to this, the eagle can hardly be appreciated, so it adopts the term "Passenger White", in the Atlantic jungle in Brazil they practically erased its presence, to find it they must go quite deep into what is the Amazon Basin and even doing this it is not guaranteed that you can see it.
Throughout the world, the harpy eagle is considered a near threatened species by the IUCN and CITES considers it an animal in danger of extinction. Especially in Mexico and Central America, it is considered a critically endangered animal, since its habitat has practically disappeared, for example, the northern area of Veracruz. Currently one can be seen in Chiapas and also in the Selva Zoque, it is threatened but not as much as in South America.
Reflection
As you have been able to notice, the harpy eagle is a species that little by little is beginning to face a possible extinction in the future, that is why the call to society is to respect its habitat, these are animals that in their place are not harming no one, the idea is not to invade their space and attack them, avoid the traffic of this animal and similar things since it is a magnificent species that deserves, just like the others, to continue having a life for all time.
Likewise, the agricultural industries and others, as well as governments and other institutions, must study how to protect these spaces so that the species can lead their lives in the most normal way. It is up to us to guarantee the continuity of the species, including humans. This is done by starting to have values and respecting the space of everyone else. Thank you for taking the trouble to read this summary, I hope you have learned more about the harpy eagle.