American Harpy Eagle

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Harpy Eagle
Conservation status
Near Threatened
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Falconiformes Family: Accipitridae Genus: Harpia Vieillot, 1816 Species: H. harpyja
Binomial name
Harpia harpyja (Linnaeus, 1758)

The American Harpy Eagle, Harpia harpyja, is a neotropical eagle, often simply called the Harpy Eagle. It is the only member of the genus Harpia.

It is the largest and most powerful eagle found in the Americas, usually inhabiting tropical lowland rainforests in the emergent layer.

Female Harpy Eagles are 100-110 cm (3 ft 3 in) long with a 200 cm (6 ft 7 in.) wingspan and average 7.5 kg (16.5 lb). Exceptional females have weighed over 9 kg (20 lb) and one captive female, "Jezebel", weighed 12.3 kg (26 lb). Only the Philippine Eagle and the Steller's Sea Eagle approach similar dimensions. The male, in comparison, weighs only about 4.75 kg (10.5 lb). It is dark grey overall, with an ash-grey head, and white belly. Both sexes possess an erectile crest of long feathers. The talons are up to 13 cm (5 in.) long.

This species is an actively hunting carnivore. Its main prey items are tree-dwelling mammals such as monkeys, coatis and sloths; it may also attack other bird species. The talons are extremely powerful, perhaps the most powerful of any raptorial bird. It can be aggressive towards humans who disturb its nesting sites or appear to be a threat to its young.

A pair of Harpy Eagles lays two white eggs in a large stick nest high in a tree, and raise one chick every 2-3 years. After the first chick hatches the second egg is ignored and fails to hatch. The chick fledges in 6 months, but the parents continue to feed it for another 6-10 months.

The Harpy Eagle is threatened by logging and hunting throughout its range, in large parts of which the bird has become a transient sight only: in Brazil, it was all but totally wiped out from the Atlantic rainforest and is only found in numbers in the most remote parts of the Amazon basin.Harpia harpyja is on the IUCN red list of endangered species.. It is considered by the Peregrine Fund as a "conservation dependent species", depending on strong measures for captive breeding and release in the wild in order to prevent its reaching endangered status.

[edit] Miscellaneous

• The Harpy Eagle is arguably the bulkiest eagle still living, and the Philippine Eagle is the only living eagle to surpass it in size. However, the extinct Haast's Eagle of New Zealand was almost 50% larger.
• The Harpy Eagle can exert a pressure of 42 kgf cm² (4.1 MPa or 530 lbf in²) with its talons. It can also lift more than 3/4 of its body weight.
• The Harpy Eagle is the national bird of Panama, and is depicted on the national Coat of arms.
• The Harpy Eagle is also the animal that artists drew from to create Fawkes the Phoenix for the movie Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
• The Harpy Eagle gives its name to an Artificial Intelligence project supported by Brazil's Federal Revenue.
• In Greek mythology a Harpy was a wind spirit that took the dead to Hades. It had a body like an eagle and a face like a human.

[edit] References

• Stiles and Skutch, A guide to the birds of Costa Rica ISBN 0-8014-9600-4

[edit] External links

• Harpy Eagle videos on the Internet Bird Collection
• Neil Rettig's Harpy Eagle information. Includes footage, facts, and links.
• Neville Guthrie's New Zealand Eagle information. Includes images and facts on the world's largest Eagle the Haast or New Zealand Eagle now Extinct
• Blue Planet