If you haven’t seen a Harpy eagle yet, get prepared to be terrified! If you asked me before, I would never list a kind of bird as a creature that I can be afraid of, as I perceive birds as tiny, colorful, cute, singing, and harmless.
Yet, apparently, there is a bird that can be terrifying, especially if it comes in proportions this large.
Meet the Harpy eagle, one of the largest and most powerful eagles on the planet! Its expressive face, a collar of feathers, and black and grey tones make it a striking and impressive creature.
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On second glance, when I think about it again, some may find its look hilarious, but it is a fact that this strange winged creature is gigantic.
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Harpy eagles live in the upper canopy of tropical lowland rainforests from Mexico to Brazil and northern Argentina. There are two kinds: the American and the Papuan kind.
These birds got their name from a beast in ancient Greek mythology that featured the face of a human and the body of an eagle, which was the personification of storm winds.
It was believed to accompany the dead to the underworld.
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Carl Linnaeus, the “father of taxonomy” and Swedish physician, zoologist and botanist, was the first to describe this eagle as the “harpy vulture” in the mid-18th century.
People like these rare birds and photos of them garner thousands of likes on social media.
Yet, harpy eagles aren’t to be messed with. They are fowls of prey. In Brazil, the harpy eagle is likewise known by another name “the imperial bird of prey”.
These eagles are the largest, most dominant raptors found in rainforests around the world, and are also among the biggest eagles on the planet.
The length of their wings can reach up to 7 feet and 4 inches (224 centimeters), but they weigh just 8.5-20 pounds (3.8-9 kilograms).
Moreover, these eagles eat bigger prey than little flying creatures, like monkeys, tree porcupines, sloths, coatis, macaws, snakes, lizards, etc
They normally live in the upper covering layer of tropical swamp woods, but due to rainforest deforestation that diminishes its habitat, these eagles become a rare site across Latin America.
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There are currently less than 50,000 of them left around the world. Many are now also found in zoos and nature reserves across North and South America.
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