Why The Sky Belongs to the Harpy Eagle

The Harpy Eagle, as its name suggests, is one of the most powerful birds of prey. It is also named the Royal Hawk. It is the quick-witted bird with talons as large as a bear's claw. It grips its prey with its talons so strongly that it crushes its prey's bones. Its talons are comparable with Rottweiler dog's jaws. It can feed upon anything fleshy and carries its prey in the air as heavy as its body weight. Being in a Harpy's territory is a misfortune for monkeys and tree sloths as they are the Harpy's favorite. Its predator-prey relationship with the monkeys enhances their cleverness as monkeys are one of the wisest animals. Its tact in hunting and grasping its prey makes it the undefeated predator in the air. It exists in America, Panama, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil where it spreads a wave of terror among the wildlife in their territory. It makes nests as large as a bed and lives in the nest for a lifetime with their only mate as if they are committed to their couple's goals. They are considered the indicator species of the ecosystem as their existence promises that all other species are in balance. Being at the top of the natural food chain, Harpy Eagle doesn't possess any natural predators, but their number is declining day by day and they are considered as a threatened species. So what renders the magnificent creature threatened? What's the secret behind the strength and intelligence of the Harpy Eagle? Does it deceive its prey with its beautiful and elegant looks? Do you want to know more about this magnificent creature? And does calling this hawk cruel justify its biology? This magnificent creature is named after Greek mythological wind spirit Harpija, which has a woman-like face, vulture-like body, hooked beak, and claws. The Harpy Eagle was first described in 1758 by Carolus Linnaeus in Systema Naturae as Vulture Harpija. Now it is named Harpia Harpija scientifically. Harpy Eagle has beautiful and enchanted looks along with power. It has dark gray feathers on the upper side and almost white from below. A distinctively wide black colored band separates the gray head from the white belly. The head is decorated with a double crest and it can manually raise its crown feathers when threatened. The tail is black with three gray bands on the upper side and three white bands on the lower side and the beak is also gray and has yellow tarsi and toes. Its legs are as thick as a human's wrist. The male and female are same in appearance except size. Females are larger in size with 13 to 19 pounds and males are relatively smaller weighing 8 to 13 pounds. It can be 2 to 3.5 feet long and as broad as a human's height or even more than that. Its talons can be 4 to 5 inches long. It is a silent raptor when away from the nest but it produces different voices while incubating and when taking food to nest like wailing, croaking, whistling, clicking, and mewing. Their nestlings are more vocal than adults. Harpy Eagles can be found in forested areas especially lowland rainforests. It is the national bird of the Republic of Panama and the idea of Fox the Phoenix in the Harry Potter movies was inspired from the Harpy Eagle. Harpies build their nests 90 to 140 feet high on tall trees like nut trees, cambara trees, and silk cotton trees. Harpies frame the nest with large sticks and fill it with softer greens, seed pods, and animal fur for making it soft and comfortable. Green twigs keep the nest cool and insect-free through its smell. A Harpy nest can be 4 feet thick and 5 feet across, large enough for a human to lie down on. Harpies can reuse and remodel the nest again and again. The Harpy Eagle is a diurnal bird and powerful carnivore that feeds on 19 species of tree-dwelling animals like monkeys, sloths, opossums, porcupines, young deer, snakes, and even iguanas. In addition to these animals, Harpy Eagle can prey upon livestock of people near their territory. It saves energy by flying underneath the forest canopy for preying instead of soaring above the canopy. Harpy Eagle can attack its prey from below as well as above due to broader and shorter wing shape and long tail with great agility. It can reach the speed of up to 50 miles per hour. It turns its head upside down to get a better look at its prey. It has excellent vision and hearing ability, which contributes in making it a flawless raptor. Its vision is so strong that it can observe anything as small as 1 inch in size from a distance of 656 feet. It can notice 4 times finer details as a human eye can. It has a tube-shaped eye that produces bigger retinal image. It also has a larger number of photoreceptors which are more closely packed that help the Harpy Eagle to pinpoint its prey in darker canopy with more precision. Its eyes are bigger in size as compared to their body size with a specialty of 2 foveae that almost no other animal has. They have a concave disc of feathers on its face to direct sound to the eagle's ears. While searching for prey, Harpy perches silently to keep its prey unsuspected. Harpy Eagle attacks the prey at once and kills it before it even knows what happened. Sometimes one eagle from the pair distracts the prey and the second eagle attacks it from the back side. It snatches its prey using its strong talons, killing its victims by crushing the bones of its prey exerting enormous pressure of over 110 pounds. They can kill prey as heavy as 17 pounds. Heavier preys are taken back to the nest in small flights and are eaten partially before reaching the nest. They can eat the prey for days if it's big enough. To keep the prey free from insects and other arthropods, Harpy keep the prey covered with twigs and leaves. Being heavier, female Harpy hunt for bigger prey as compared to male Harpy. Due to small size, males hunt smaller size prey comparatively but are more agile. Harpy Eagles are monogamous and they may mate for a lifetime. Their mating season starts with the beginning of the rainy season that is April to May. During their mating season, they mate many times. They are observed to rub their bills with one another which is thought to be a mating adaptation. Harpy Eagles have a lifespan of 25-35 years in wild and even more in captivity. Harpy Eagles reaches maturity at age 4-5 years, then it reproduces for every 2-3 years. Among raptors, Harpy Eagle has the longest breeding period. Female Harpy Eagle lay 1-2 eggs in a clutch. Both parents incubate the eggs with the female being mainly responsible. Incubation can last for 56 days and they defend their eggs and young ones fiercely. After hatching of the first chick, the second egg dies from lack of incubation. Two eggs are laid to ensure hatching of at least one chick. The chick is all white and gets coloring slowly. After 35 days, the chick is able to stand and walk. The chick gets its complete adult look when it is in the third year of its life. Harpy Eagle chicks reach the age to fly when they are about 5-6 months old and have flight feathers fully grown. But they remain dependent on their parents for one year, especially for food. Both the parents feed the chick for about 10 months, then force the junior to survive on their own by decreasing their food supply. In doing so, parents return to their chicks with big gaps, for example once in 10 days. They prove to be very nurturous parents. Harpy Eagles keep check on the ecosystems in which they live. They control the population of many animals that may outburst if Harpies don't feed upon them. Moreover, Harpy Eagles also play a role in spreading seeds of trees, especially those trees on which they nest when they perch and soar for hunting. Harpy Eagles are non-migratory birds. Deforestation, pollution, logging, and hunting have disturbed the population size of animals which serve as their prey. Their prey has gone scarce and also have adapted to hide from such a clever predator that they have to perch for periods as long as 23 hours to find their prey. The population of Harpy Eagle is also declining due to habitat loss, deforestation, and hunting. People hunt Harpy Eagle out of fear, loss of livestock, curiosity, animal protein, and illegal wildlife trade. There are only 50,000 individuals of the species left in the wild, and it is considered as nearly threatened. Harpy Eagles must be conserved and preserved by resolving such problems. Hence, the power of Harpy Eagle owes to its biology, especially its marvelous size, agility, vision, hearing, and strength of its talons. It's on the apex of food chain with no predators, and its abilities prove it is worthy of being called the Royal Hawk. Calling it cruel is simply unjust for the Harpy Eagle, as it only hunts to make its survival possible. Call it the Lord of Skies.