The harpy eagle is among the largest and most luxurious birds of prey. Seeing this close to legendary raptor has been on my bucket checklist for years. So, after I’m invited to Panama by the Cover Household https://canopytower.com/canopy-camp, I seize the possibility, and get a lot greater than I may have hoped for.
Journey Like Me
Should you’d prefer to observe in my footsteps and see a harpy eagle for your self, check out my journey web page – the place you may ebook a visit too: https://www.robertefuller.com/journey/
Legendary Harpy Eagle
The harpy eagle is the nationwide chicken of Panama. Named after the harpies of Greek mythology, grotesque girls with the our bodies of birds, this gigantic eagle is essentially the most highly effective raptor on earth and its rear talons can measure 5 inches – larger than the claws of a grizzly bear. My information, Eliecer takes me to a secret location and he’s assured we’ll get some good sightings. However it’s gonna be fairly a journey! From the camp, we journey forty minutes by automotive. Subsequent, it’s a 15-minute canoe journey down the Chucunaque River after which we set off by the pastures on horseback after which walked by dense jungle to a lookout level.
The Cuipo Tree
Eliecer, ultimately pointed a finger to a small hole excessive within the tree cover. And there it was. An enormous nest, resting within the fork of a cuipo tree. Cuipo bushes are the most important bushes of this area and measure as much as 200ft excessive, towering excessive of the remainder of the cover. All the pieces on this forest appeared super-sized, and so after I noticed a feminine harpy eagle sitting contained in the nest, it felt surreal. Like coming throughout a legendary large in an outsized land. The harpy eagle is so spectacular it’s revered throughout Central and South America. As I educated my lens on it, it referred to as out, an extended whistle that rang out throughout the forest.
First Glimpse Of The Chick
Eliecer mentioned the sound meant she was hungry and was calling for the male to deliver meals. After which a small white head appeared over the rim of the nest. A chick about one month outdated. The feminine leaned over it, her solely chick, and for a second she appeared fiercely protecting. Mesmerised, we watched her and her chick for a complete of six hours, ignoring the humidity. All through, the feminine referred to as repeatedly for meals. Then she took flight, her big two-metre wings at full unfold as she headed off into the forest. However she didn’t go far, and I may simply see her in a close-by tree. She was tussling with one thing which made me suppose she was looking, however then she arrived again with a department and it appeared that she was simply refreshing the nest with some greenery.
Male Harpy Eagle Flies In
She did, nevertheless, appear hungry and saved looking out the nest for meals in useless. Males don’t deliver meals every single day we had been starting to surrender hope on seeing her mate in any respect once we heard the male lastly return the feminine’s calls. Then abruptly, the male flew into the nest carrying prey. It was arduous to see what he had introduced because it stuffed his talons, however we watched the feminine take it from him and start to feed it to the chick. The male was smaller than the feminine. We watched him look across the nest earlier than flying as much as the department above. He was there lengthy sufficient for me to get some wonderful footage of him after which he took flight, melting again into the forest.
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