The harpy eagle is one of the largest and most magnificent birds of prey. Seeing this near mythical raptor has been on my bucket list for years. So, when I’m invited to Panama by the Canopy Family https://canopytower.com/canopy-camp, I seize the chance, and get so much more than I could have hoped for.
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Legendary harpy eagle
The harpy eagle is the national bird of Panama. Named after the harpies of Greek mythology, gruesome women with the bodies of birds, this gigantic eagle is the most powerful raptor on earth and its rear talons can measure five inches – bigger than the claws of a grizzly bear. My guide, Eliecer takes me to a secret location and he’s confident we’ll get some good sightings. But it’s gonna be quite a journey! From the camp, we travel forty minutes by car. Next, it’s a 15-minute canoe trip down the Chucunaque River and then we set off through the pastures on horseback and then walked through dense jungle to a lookout point.
The cuipo tree
Eliecer, eventually pointed a finger to a small gap high in the tree canopy. And there it was. A huge nest, resting in the fork of a cuipo tree. Cuipo trees are the largest trees of this region and measure up to 200ft high, towering over the top of the rest of the canopy. Everything in this forest seemed super-sized, and so when I spotted a female harpy eagle sitting inside the nest, it felt surreal. Like coming across a mythical giant in an oversized land. The harpy eagle is so impressive it is revered across Central and South America. As I trained my lens on it, it called out, a long whistle that rang out across the forest.
First glimpse of the chick
Eliecer said the sound meant she was hungry and was calling for the male to bring food. And then a small white head appeared over the rim of the nest. A chick about one month old. The female leaned over it, her only chick, and for a moment she looked fiercely protective. Mesmerised, we watched her and her chick for a total of six hours, ignoring the humidity. Throughout, the female called again and again for food. Then she took flight, her huge two-metre wings at full spread as she headed off into the forest. But she didn’t go far, and I could just see her in a nearby tree. She was tussling with something which made me think she was hunting, but then she arrived back with a branch and it seemed that she was just refreshing the nest with some greenery.
Male harpy eagle flies In
She did, however, seem hungry and kept searching the nest for food in vain. Males don’t bring food every day we were beginning to give up hope on seeing her mate at all when we heard the male finally return the female’s calls. Then all of a sudden, the male flew into the nest carrying prey. It was hard to see what he had brought as it filled his talons, but we watched the female take it from him and begin to feed it to the chick. The male was smaller than the female. We watched him look around the nest before flying up to the branch above. He was there long enough for me to get some amazing footage of him and then he took flight, melting back into the forest.
#harpyeagle #robertefuller #eagle #panama
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