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Portrait of Harpy eagle

Nature · Birds

Harpy eagle

Vulnerable (IUCN, uplisted 2021)

Harpia harpyja — Accipitridae

The most powerful raptor in the Americas, a huge grey-and-white forest eagle with a double crest and talons the size of a grizzly bear's claws. It hunts inside the canopy of lowland rainforest from southern Mexico to northern Argentina, taking sloths and monkeys straight off branches. It is the national bird of Panama and appears on the Panamanian coat of arms.

How to spot them

  • ▸Pale grey head with a divided crest that is raised into two 'horns' when alert
  • ▸Slate-black breast band across a white belly; grey back; barred grey thighs
  • ▸Hind talons up to about 5 cm long — the size of a grizzly bear's claws — on legs as thick as a child's wrist
  • ▸Relatively short, broad wings and a long tail for manoeuvring inside forest rather than soaring above it
  • ▸A plaintive, drawn-out whistling wheeee, often given from a high perch

How to know it

Talons up to 5 cm long, as long as a grizzly bear's claws, take sloths and monkeys straight off branches

Harpy eagle — the Americas' most powerful raptor.

The national bird of Panama, where it appears on the coat of arms

Harpy eagle.

Named by Linnaeus after the part-woman, part-bird monsters of Greek myth

Harpia harpyja, the harpy eagle.

Short broad wings and a long tail let this heavyweight hunt inside the canopy rather than above it

Harpy eagle — a forest-interior raptor.

A pale grey head with a crest split into two horns is raised when the bird is alert

Harpy eagle's double crest.

Uplisted from Near Threatened to Vulnerable in 2021 as Amazonian deforestation spread

Harpy eagle — IUCN Red List.

A pair lays two eggs but raises only one chick, which depends on its parents for two to three years

Harpy eagle's very slow breeding cycle.

Quick-fire facts

  • •Females weigh 6–9 kg, males 4–5 kg; wingspan 1.8–2.2 m, short for the weight
  • •IUCN Red List: Vulnerable — uplisted in 2021, having been Near Threatened since 2004
  • •Prey is dominated by sloths (two-toed and three-toed) and monkeys such as capuchins and howlers; also coatis, opossums, porcupines and macaws
  • •Nests high in a kapok (Ceiba pentandra) or other emergent tree, in a stick platform used for years
  • •The breeding cycle takes about three years: two eggs, one surviving chick, fledging at about six months but fed for far longer
  • •It has effectively disappeared from most of Central America; the Peregrine Fund ran a reintroduction programme in Panama and Belize
  • •Its closest relatives are the crested eagle (Morphnus guianensis) and the New Guinea harpy eagle
  • •The Panamanian coat of arms and the 2019 Panamanian one-balboa coin both carry the bird

Drill it — 8 cards

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