Harpy Eagle
A species of Harpy Eagle Scientific name : Harpia harpyja Genus : Harpy Eagle
Harpy Eagle, A species of Harpy Eagle
Botanical name: Harpia harpyja
Genus: Harpy Eagle
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Description General Info
Photo By Hector Bottai , used under CC-BY-SA-4.0 /Cropped and compressed from original 
Description
The upperside of the harpy eagle is covered with slate-black feathers, and the underside is mostly white, except for the feathered tarsi, which are striped black. A broad black band across the upper breast separates the gray head from the white belly. The head is pale grey, and is crowned with a double crest. The upperside of the tail is black with three gray bands, while the underside of it is black with three white bands. The iris is gray or brown or red, the cere and bill are black or blackish and the tarsi and toes are yellow. The plumage of males and females are identical. The tarsus is up to 13 cm (5.1 in) long. Female harpy eagles typically weigh 6 to 9 kg (13 to 20 lb). One source states that adult females can weigh up to 10 kg (22 lb). An exceptionally large captive female, "Jezebel", weighed 12.3 kg (27 lb). Being captive, this large female may not be representative of the weight possible in wild harpy eagles due to differences in the food availability. The male, in comparison, is much smaller and may range in weight from 4 to 5.95 kg (8.8 to 13.1 lb). The average weight of adult males has been reported as 4.4 to 4.8 kg (9.7 to 10.6 lb) against an average of 7.35 to 8.3 kg (16.2 to 18.3 lb) for adult females, a 35% or higher difference in mean body mass. Harpy eagles may measure from 86.5 to 107 cm (2 ft 10 in to 3 ft 6 in) in total length and have a wingspan of 176 to 224 cm (5 ft 9 in to 7 ft 4 in). Among the standard measurements, the wing chord measures 54–63 cm (1 ft 9 in–2 ft 1 in), the tail measures 37–42 cm (1 ft 3 in–1 ft 5 in), the tarsus is 11.4–13 cm (4.5–5.1 in) long, and the exposed culmen from the cere is 4.2 to 6.5 cm (1.7 to 2.6 in). It is sometimes cited as the largest eagle alongside the Philippine eagle, which is somewhat longer on average (between sexes averaging 100 cm (3 ft 3 in)) but weighs slightly less, and the Steller's sea eagle, which is perhaps slightly heavier on average (mean of 3 unsexed birds was 7.75 kg (17.1 lb)). The harpy eagle may be the largest bird species to reside in Central America, though large water birds such as American white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) and jabirus (Jabiru mycteria) have scarcely lower mean body masses. The wingspan of the harpy eagle is relatively small though the wings are quite broad, an adaptation that increases maneuverability in forested habitats and is shared by other raptors in similar habitats. The wingspan of the harpy eagle is surpassed by several large eagles who live in more open habitats, such as those in the Haliaeetus and Aquila genera. The extinct Haast's eagle was significantly larger than all extant eagles, including the harpy. This species is largely silent away from the nest. There, the adults give a penetrating, weak, melancholy scream, with the incubating males' call described as "whispy screaming or wailing". The females' calls while incubating are similar, but are lower-pitched. While approaching the nest with food, the male calls out "rapid chirps, goose-like calls, and occasional sharp screams". Vocalization in both parents decreases as the nestlings age, while the nestlings become more vocal. The nestlings call chi-chi-chi...chi-chi-chi-chi, seemingly in alarm in response to rain or direct sunlight. When humans approach the nest, the nestlings have been described as uttering croaks, quacks, and whistles. 
Size
1.05 m
Colors
Black
Gray
White
Blue
Life Expectancy
25-35 years
Feeding Habits
Harpy Eagle's primary diet consists of tree-dwelling mammals, especially sloths and monkeys. They use perch-hunting techniques to spot and dive after prey. With exceptional strength, harpy Eagle can lift prey matching their own body weight. Their large talons are adapted for snatching prey from trees.
Habitat
Harpy Eagle typically inhabit tropical lowland rainforests, favoring the emergent layer where they can be seen perching on towering trees, scanning for prey. They are predominantly found within the canopy to emergent vegetation zones, below an elevation of 900 m, though occasionally up to 2,000 m. While harpy Eagle show resilience in territories that have been subjected to certain levels of human disturbance, they typically avoid areas with extensive deforestation. Nevertheless, they are versatile enough to venture into a variety of adjacent ecosystems for hunting, including cerrados, caatingas, and even semi-urban regions that retain a mosaic of forested habitats.
Dite type
Carnivorous
General Info
Distribution Area
Rare throughout its range, the harpy eagle is found from Mexico (almost extinct), through Central America and into South America to as far south as Argentina. In rainforests, they live in the emergent layer. The eagle is most common in Brazil, where it is found across the entire national territory. With the exception of some areas of Panama, the species is almost extinct in Central America, subsequent to the logging of much of the rainforest there. The harpy eagle inhabits tropical lowland rainforests and may occur within such areas from the canopy to the emergent vegetation. They typically occur below an elevation of 900 m (3,000 ft), but have been recorded at elevations up to 2,000 m (6,600 ft). Within the rainforest, they hunt in the canopy or sometimes on the ground, and perch on emergent trees looking for prey. They do not generally occur in disturbed areas, but regularly visit semiopen forest/pasture mosaic, mainly in hunting forays. Harpies, however, can be found flying over forest borders in a variety of habitats, such as cerrados, caatingas, buriti palm stands, cultivated fields, and cities. They have been found in areas where high-grade forestry is practiced.
Species Status
Although the harpy eagle still occurs over a considerable range, its distribution and populations have dwindled considerably. It is threatened primarily by habitat loss due to the expansion of logging, cattle ranching, agriculture, and prospecting. Secondarily, it is threatened by being hunted as an actual threat to livestock and/or a supposed one to human life, due to its great size. Although not actually known to prey on humans and only rarely on domestic stock, the species' large size and nearly fearless behavior around humans reportedly make it an "irresistible target" for hunters. Such threats apply throughout its range, in large parts of which the bird has become a transient sight only; in Brazil, it was all but wiped out from the Atlantic rainforest and is only found in appreciable numbers in the most remote parts of the Amazon basin; a Brazilian journalistic account of the mid-1990s already complained that at the time it was only found in significant numbers in Brazilian territory on the northern side of the Equator. Scientific 1990s records, however, suggest that the harpy Atlantic Forest population may be migratory. Subsequent research in Brazil has established that, as of 2009, the harpy eagle, outside the Brazilian Amazon, is critically endangered in Espírito Santo, São Paulo and Paraná, endangered in Rio de Janeiro, and probably extirpated in Rio Grande do Sul (where there is a recent (March 2015) record for the Parque Estadual do Turvo)[1] and Minas Gerais – the actual size of their total population in Brazil is unknown. Globally, the harpy eagle is considered Near Threatened by IUCN and threatened with extinction by CITES (appendix I). The Peregrine Fund until recently considered it a "conservation-dependent species", meaning it depends on a dedicated effort for captive breeding and release to the wild, as well as habitat protection, to prevent it from reaching endangered status, but now has accepted the Near Threatened status. The harpy eagle is considered critically endangered in Mexico and Central America, where it has been extirpated in most of its former range; in Mexico, it used to be found as far north as Veracruz, but today probably occurs only in Chiapas in the Selva Zoque. It is considered as Near Threatened or Vulnerable in most of the South American portion of its range; at the southern extreme of its range, in Argentina, it is found only in the Parana Valley forests at the province of Misiones. It has disappeared from El Salvador, and almost so from Costa Rica.
Scientific Classification
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