The Harpy Eagle
-Did you know that the most powerful bird of prey is not the biggest one? Size doesn't matter in this case because this beautiful bird has perfectly adapted to the rule that says that the weaker get killed and the other rule that say kill or get killed. Well, if you take a good guess, we are talking about the harpy eagle, the most powerful bird there is on earth.
-The harpy eagle is a bird of prey that is very powerful because it has a sharp, hooked gray beak and big, strong yellow claws. Did you know that their talons (claws) are as big as a grizzly bear's talons and that the harpy eagle's foot is the size of a grown-up man's hand!!!!? Yes, that's true. The harpy eagle also has a crest made out of gray feathers when it is alerted. It has dark eyes that look at you fiercely and a breast that is white as snow. Their average size is 2.8 feet tall (86 cm), but female harpies are about one third bigger than male harpies! The females weigh 14-18 (7-8 kilograms) and the males weigh 10-16 pounds (5-8 kilograms). The wingspan of an average size harpy eagle is of 6.5 feet (2 meters) long They use these large wings to soar up in the sky and find the prey that is the most convenient.
-The harpy eagle soars high in the sky to find a big prey it could catch and eat. It mostly eats mammals that live in trees like monkeys and sloths. This wonderful eagle can also eat opossums, large reptiles like iguanas, large rodents, other kinds of birds, and can even eat a spiky tree porcupine. The harpy eagle is a diurnal bird (that hunts in the day, not night). This eagle easily adapted to the rainforest and one of the main reasons for adaptation is thanks to the food it has chosen to eat.
-The harpy eagle, as I said before, adapted easily overtime to survive in the rainforest for many reasons, not just for the food it usually eats. Now, these are some reasons I'm giving you….. The first reason after food is because this eagle has a keen sense of seeing. They can see things from a lot of miles away. The second reason is because it is very powerful, and that helps it get good amounts of food, which it eats in very high trees. The third reason is because they have a long life span, that is of 25-35 years.
-The harpy lives in the canopy, where the sun shows up bright. When these eagles are prepared to build nests, they make them big and put them in high trees, sometimes 130 feet tall (40 meters tall). Some harpies are found living in the emergent layer of the rainforest. This may be a way of protection.
-Warning….! The harpy eagle has long and very sharp claws. It hates being disturbed by people. When someone wants to touch the eagle, it can turn very aggressive. The situation can turn very bad when the harpy eagle is in mating season.
-The harpy eagle and all or almost all eagles are monogamous, meaning that they mate for life. The female lays 2 eggs but only 1 of the two will survive. The gestation period is similar to other eagle's gestation period, that is of about 2-3 months. The harpy eagle nests in high trees, like kapoc trees found in Panama, so it is not disturbed. It can protect its young this way.
-The harpy eagle protects its young by leaving the young a long period of time in the nest. It lets the young leave after the young learns to fly and hunt. When someone that he harpy thinks is dangerous and can attack gets nearby, the harpy eagle can be very aggressive and leave the intruder very injured. This happens, even though a lot of people kill harpy eagles.
-This animal is an endangered species animal because of deforestation and hunting. Its enemies are humans. Not all humans do these things, and some care a lot for this wonderful bird. You should take care for this bird, the same as this animal cares for its young, because this animal may take a lot of time to bring one good sized prey to its young.
-In conclusion, I think this animal is very important to keep in the rainforest because it has the most important right in the world, that is the right to live. The food chain would also be ruined because there would be a lot of animals and not enough food to survive. So think over well, because the harpy eagle rocks!!!!
Bibliography>
USA Today page/ http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/wonderquest/2002-06-14-hawk.htm / 6-14-2002.
Enchanted Learning page/ http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/printouts/Harpyeagle.shtml
Webserv.nhl.nl page/ http://webserv.nhl.nl/~ribot/english/haha_ng.htm
Greece.k12.ny.us page/ http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/wr/ozuna/animals/jana.pdf and http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/wr/ozuna/animals/david.pdf
Encarta.msn page/ http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=761576648¶=8#p8
Animal diversity page/ http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/harpia/h._harpyja$narrative.html
Curry.edschool.virginia.edu/ http://curry.edschool.virginia..edu/go/edis771/webquest2000/student/scolleenmuldoon/harpyeagle.html