Of the 13 nests found, nine were less than 300 feet from the edge of the forest. On average, 28.1 sq mi of forest were located in this calculated area, with the rest consisting of open land with different uses. The authors assume that a circle with a radius of one-half of this distance might be about the size of a territory for a pair, which has an average size of 51.3 sq mi. On Mindanao relatively uniform distances of 5-10 miles were found in the 1990s between 14 neighboring areas, with an average of 7 miles. The species occurs at altitudes from 0 to 5,400 feet. Philippine eagles live in primary rainforests, especially in mountainous terrain, secondary forests and gallery forests. Whether it used to occur in the entire Philippines or has always been absent in the drier west of the archipelago is unclear. The total size of its range is estimated at about 56,370 square miles. The Philippine eagle is endemic to the Philippines and is found on four islands: eastern Luzon, Samar, Leyte and Mindanao. However, according to molecular genetic studies, the Philippine eagle is not closely related to these three species, but to the subfamily Circaetinae, which includes the snake or serpent eagles of the genera Circaetus, Spilornis, and Terathopius. Until a presidential decree in 1978 officially changing its name, it was previously known - rather inaccurately as well as disrespectfully - as the monkey-eating eagle.ĭue to similarities in size and behavior the Philippine eagle has long been placed together in a subfamily named Harpiinae with several neotropical species, among them the harpy eagle ( Harpia harpyja), the crested eagle ( Morphnus guianensis), both of South America, and the New Guinea harpy eagle ( Harpyopsis novaeguineae). The first specimen of the Philippine Eagle was collected by John Whitehead in 1896 on Samar, who was told by the natives there that it fed exclusively on monkeys alone the first describers of this bird to Western science would be influenced by this description of its eating habit and give it the name Pithecophaga (Greek: πίθηκος, píthēkos: "monkey" and φᾰγεῖν, phagein: "eating"), "eater of monkeys".
PHILIPPINE EAGLE SERIES
Begging young birds express a conspicuous and far-reaching series of high and pointed calls. Males are quite vociferous during courtship. The calls are described as strange-sounding whining or as long, soft or high whistles like "whiiiiiiuh", which usually rise in pitch, but occasionally fall off. At what age the juveniles take on the adult plumage is not yet known. The iris is brown and the legs are a lighter, more whitish yellow. The light tinges of the upper plumage are usually wider and more white than in adult birds. The plumage of young birds differ only slightly from that of the adults. It is also blue-gray in color, the only eagle to have this distinction. The beak is deep, laterally-compressed and massive. The head and top of the neck is adorned with a brown-streaked crest, giving the bird a regal appearance when erect, and possibly inspiring the Tagalog name " Haring Ibon" ("bird king").
It is colored a dark, chocolate brown above, with its wing feathers tinged in a pale cream below the eagle is mainly white.
Its wingspan is from 6 to 6.5 feet, and it weighs up to 18 pounds. They are under threat from declining and fragmented habitat, through commercial timber extraction, expanding agriculture, mining operations, uncontrolled hunting, pesticide accumulation, and also severe weather events, such as Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.The Philippine eagle female is approximately 3.3 feet long from beak to tail tip, with some specimens in museums a few inches longer. In light of this, it recently acquired the status of the National Bird of the Philippines, which has helped greatly to increase awareness of the bird and its plight. They are monogamous and mate for life, unless one of the pair dies, and they have a long breeding cycle that lasts for two years with the male and female sharing parental care for a total of 20 months.Įndemic to the Philippines, the eagle’s small, rapidly declining population has been feared close to extinction for the past 40 years. This was later found to be incorrect as more recent studies have revealed the species to prey on a variety of animals ranging from rodents and bats to pigs and monitor lizards.
It was formerly known as the Monkey-eating Eagle, as reports from natives told that the raptor preyed exclusively on monkeys. The Philippine Eagle is one of the world’s largest, most powerful birds of prey.
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