Harpy Eagle

The harpy eagle is one of the largest and most powerful eagles in the world and the biggest bird of prey in the Americas. Adults are slate-black above and white below, with a broad black band across the upper breast separating the pale grey head from the white belly, a split double crest and black-barred feathered legs. The tail is black with three pale bands. The feet are enormous: females' talons average about 12cm. Females are much heavier than males, by 35% or more. Its wings are short and broad for its size, suited to flying inside the forest (Wikipedia, general species account).

It hunts from perches in the forest canopy, rarely on the ground, and can carry prey up to about half its own weight. At one nest in the Brazilian Amazon, 79% of prey brought to the chick were two- and three-toed sloths, while monkeys made up 35% of remains at nests in Amazonian Ecuador. In the Pantanal, a nesting pair fed mainly on porcupines and agoutis. Away from the nest it is largely silent; near the nest adults give a weak, wailing scream. It nests in the largest trees, such as Brazil nut trees (Wikipedia, general species account).

Harpy eagles are rare and patchy wherever they live and have disappeared from much of Central America and the Atlantic Forest, mainly through logging, ranching and farming, and through shooting by people who fear them. On this guide it is a target species of Madidi National Park (Wikipedia, general species account).