If it wasn’t bad enough that this blog is about to be taken over by two errant New Yorkers on their triumphant return to reality after a week soaking up the specialities of Honduras and Guatemala, I now have to endure a friend - Marc Johnson of the hugely important Foster Parrots Ltd - sending me photos of my one of ‘most-wanted to see great big flipping gorgeous eagles anywhere in the world’: the huge (a body length of 35 - 41 inches with a 6 1/2 -foot wingspan, hind talons the size of Grizzly Bear claws, and weighing 10 - 20 pounds) increasingly scarce (it’s listed as Near Threatened and moderately declining because of hunting and habitat loss) incredibly beautiful Harpy Eagle Harpia harpyja!

As well as running an inspiring and beautifully landscaped parrot rescue centre/sanctuary in Rhode Island with partner Karen Windsor, (the New England Exotic Wildlife Sanctuary), Marc is a committed conservationist and launched Project Guyana a few years ago, establishing the Maipaima eco-Lodge at Nappi (southern Guyana) in 2003 and returning every year - hopefully with an ever-increasing list of birders keen to see such sought-after species as, well, Harpy Eagle…

When we first starting talking to Marc (for January’s ‘Parrot Month’ theme) he casually asked me if I’d be interested in seeing a Harpy Eagle (he didn’t know me very well at the time or wouldn’t have wasted breath on such a redundant question)…would I, would I? Why don’t you come to Guyana, we have a nest near the Lodge, he said?

Come to Guyana…?

With Mike in Guatemala and Corey in Honduras I thought I’d better stay at home and keep the blog updated (okay, okay, I couldn’t get leave from the airline in time to go, but I will, I will…), and said to Marc that if he managed to get any photos why not send them to me and I’d post them so that everyone else who hasn’t been to Guyana can also see what they’re missing.

I almost wish I hadn’t asked, because I didn’t expect photos like this - dots in the canopy, or a blur fleeing a distant snag, perhaps, but not two birds perched above his head and one sat on a nest! Oh well, it would be sour grapes indeed if I didn’t post them because they were too good…

 

Marc asked whether I thought these two birds are a mated pair or an adult with a sub-adult/immature (the paler bird). I’m certainly not an expert on Harpy Eagles, and I can’t definitely work out the answer with the references I have. If anyone reading this is intimate with the various life-stages of Harpy Eagle please let me know if you could. Thanks.

 

Like many other birds of prey, Harpy Eagles often put fresh green twigs and branches into the huge stick nest they build. Some researchers think this helps to fumigate the nest against insects and parasites, and perhaps provide a cooler environment for the nestling. Whatever the reason Marc’s photos below clearly show this. I’m not sure if this has been suggested anywhere else, but I do wonder whether fresh leaves also help to camouflage the nest back into the canopy? Maybe that’s just a happy co-incidence, but it does perhaps seem as likely as a bird having some kind of notion that decorating a nest with leaves keeps insects away…

 

Photos copyright Marc Johnson, www.fosterparrots.com

 

An additional threat to the stunning Harpy Eagle - and one I hadn’t considered before - is that drivers along the new roads cutting through Guyana’s once pristine forests are deliberately running down Harpys as they feed on roadkill! Hard to believe? Check out this 2006 story on the Iwokrama website. Scanadalous doesn’t come close…