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Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about harpy eagles. These birds are well known as the eagles who are able to knock humans out of trees, and it’s no wonder - these are some big birds and are considered some of the largest eagles in the world! Female harpy eagles are larger than males with up to seven foot (2.1 meters) wingspans and reaching weights from fifteen to twenty pounds (6.8 to 9 kilograms)! Males may be somewhere between ten and fifteen pounds (4.5 to 6.8 kilograms) in weight, which admittedly, on average, is still heavier than Chester - which means a harpy eagle could easily eat Chester if given the opportunity. Harpy eagles are able to take on prey that matches them in weight. Generally, these birds take arboreal animals for meals, but they may leave the tree canopy for an opportunistic snack. Harpy eagles live together in pairs of lifelong partners. Their territories are believed to be no smaller than 4,500 acres (18 square kilometers). Within these ranges, harpy eagles may hunt monkeys, sloths, deer, iguanas, toucans, parrots, and more. As the smaller partners, male harpy eagles are more agile and able to catch quicker, smaller prey while females tend to take the larger meals. This helps to ensure the resources within their territory are well spread.

Harpy eagles live in tropical and subtropical primary forests of central and south America. A primary forest is a forest that has been able to reach an old age without much disturbance. As apex predators, harpy eagles don’t really face threats besides pressures from humans. Not only are harpy eagles hunted for their feathers, they are losing livable habitat. Seeing as how they spend most of their time in trees, they kind of need these to survive! Harpy eagles are generally found in the forest canopy and may perch in the same spot for nearly a day while scoping out a meal. When they find something, a harpy eagle will swoop down and grab its prey right from the branches of a tree. Harpy eagles have five inch (12.7 centimeters) talons - that’s longer than the claws of a grizzly bear, mind you. The eagle will crush it’s meal, breaking bones, causing an instantaneous death. Yeah, they’re kind of scary. And they’ll aggressively defend their nests from intruders because other harpy eagles may try to harm their offspring.

The couple will have a nest within their territory typically built in the tallest tree around. Each year they’ll add to the nest until it becomes large enough for an adult human to lay down inside it! The nests can get so big that they’ll collapse and then the eagles will have to start all over again. The breeding season for harpy eagles begins with the rainy season around April to May. A female will normally lay two eggs, though only one will make it to adulthood. Eesh, this sounds familiar. Unlike shoebills who participate in siblicide, harpy eagle parents will actually ignore their second egg once the first egg has hatched. The second egg is laid as insurance in case something goes wrong with the first egg, but just raising one chick costs a lot of resources, so they’ll only raise the one. Female harpy eagles do most of the incubation, and the egg takes about 56 days to hatch. Once hatched, it’ll be more than half a year before the eaglet fledges and it’ll continue asking for food until it’s almost a year old! Eventually the parents will just stop feeding it and then it’ll be on it’s own, but it may return when it’s ready to begin breeding. Harpy eagles have been observed returning to their “nesting tree” even as adults!

You’ve probably noticed that harpy eagles have some fancy headgear. It’s believed harpy eagles raise their crests when they feel threatened, though raising the feathers may also act as a means of redirecting sounds to a harpy eagle’s ears - kind of like owl facial feathers! If they can avoid threats, harpy eagles may live to be more than thirty years old!

For more facts on harpy eagles, check out the links in the description. Thank you to Stefan Lupu, Cursed Artist, and Supermariofan Kingboo for today’s request. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.