Profile
In flight
Birds of Prey
Harpy Eagle
Harpia harpyja
- rare
- 80 km/h
- Vulnerable
Talons the size of grizzly bear claws. The most powerful eagle on Earth does not lose packages.
- Population
- No precise global count established; described as rare throughout its range with a declining population trend due to deforestation and shooting
- Habitat
- Emergent canopy of tropical lowland rainforest, mostly below 900 m elevation (recorded up to 2,000 m), requiring large expanses of intact forest with tall emergent trees for nesting
- Fun fact
- The Harpy Eagle is the national bird of Panama (it appears on the national coat of arms), and adult females are powerful enough to snatch a full-grown sloth or howler monkey from the canopy in flight without landing.
- Range
- Southern Mexico through Central America (extinct in El Salvador, nearly extirpated elsewhere in the region except Panama, which retains the largest Central American breeding population) to South America (Brazil, Bolivia, northern Argentina), with Brazil holding the most stable populations
- Diet
- Arboreal mammals, especially sloths (up to ~79% of diet in some studies) and monkeys, plus birds, reptiles, and occasionally smaller domestic/ground animals
- Size
- 1 m
- Wingspan
- 2 m
- Lifespan
- 30 years
