Harpy Eagles-
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| Harpy Eagle |
I don't know if you have ever heard of the Harpy eagle by
they are quite beautiful and a Neotropical species of the Bald Eagle
Also they are quite rare.The Harpy Eagle is a Neotropical species of eagle. It is sometimes known as the American Harpy Eagle to distinguish it from the Papuan Eagle which is sometimes known as the New Guinea Harpy Eagle or Papuan Harpy Eagle. It is the largest and most powerful raptor found in the Americas, and among the largest extant species of eagles in the world. It usually inhabits tropical lowland rainforest's in the upper canopy layer. Destruction of its natural habitat has seen it vanish from many parts of its former range, and it is nearly extirpated in Central America. In Brazil, the Harpy Eagle is also known as Royal-Hawk.
The Harpy Eagles have a history of sorts with the Greek gods - It was said back in the ancient times
of the Gods of Zeus when ever there was a sudden sharp gust of wind it was the spirited Harpies of
the Greek Gods. They were known as the Hounds of Zeus and were Dispatched by the God to Snatch
away people and things from the Earth by his command - Zeus of course. Suddenly and often mysteriously there were many disappearances on Earth that were attributed to
the Harpyiai by the hand of Zeus command. Of course none of the humans of the ancient times had any
idea of what was happening. Only the Greek Gods were aware of the dispatched of the harpies or as they would could them Zeus hounds. It is said that once his Harpies were sent to plague the King Phineus[had
the gift of prophecy]of Thrake as an punishment for revealing the Secrets of the Gods. What Zeus did was -
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Harpies in Greek Ancient
Times their island Forest
Strophades |
Whenever a plate of food was set before him, his Harpies would swoop down and snatch it away, befouling any scraps they would leave behind. So in hence the King Phineus of Thrake punishment was starvation by
the Gods/Zeus. Hence this would have continued if it wasn't for the arrival of Jason and the Argonauts. With
the Boreades, sons or the Boreas, the North Wind, who also could fly had succeeded in driving off the harpies away to the Strophades Islands without killing not even one of them,but it was followed by
a request from the
Goddess Iris , who had promised that the the King Phineus would not be bothered ever again by the harpies again. "The dogs of the Great Zeus returned to their cave in Minoan Crete.'' Thankful for their help, the King Phineus told the Argonauts how to pass the Symplegades.
It is said that the harpies in the Greek Mythology were depicted as winged women/or even monsters being
that they were Zeus hounds, who had sharp claws and
usually had an ugly face and the lower body of a black bird. In this form they were an agent of punishment who would abducted people/humans and torture them on their way to Tartarus. They were very vicious, cruel and violent. They lived on the islands of Strophades. These Sister harpies were usually seen as the personifications of the destructive nature of wind. I found that they were
three sisters and their names were:
Aello-[storm swift]
Ocypete-[the swift wing]
Virgil's/added Celaeno[the dark] as the third sister harpies
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| Harpy Sister |
It was said that
Homer knew of a harpy named Podarge [fleet-foot]
But I havent' been able to find any writings on this harpy that is connected
with the three main sisters.
What I did discover was that Aeneas encountered the three sisters harpy's on the island of
Strophades as they repeatedly made off with the feast of the Trojans Titans were settled there.
The one
harpy sister Celaeno cursed them by saying to the Trojans 'They will be so hungry they
will eat their travels before they reach the end to their journey.' With that warning and curse the
Trojans fled in fear. So it seems that the harpy's did have a certain about of power in the ancient
world of the Gods of Zeus.
Harpies in the infernal wood by Gustave Dore 1861
Here the repellent harpies make their nests,
Who drove the Trojans from the Strophades
With dire announcements of the coming woe.
They have broad wings, with razor sharp talons and a human neck and face.
Clawed feet and swollen, feathered bellies; they caw
Their lamentations in their eerie trees.
Well, now that I have covered the mythology part of the harpy eagle in the Greek Gods times,
we will move forward to the descendants of the harpys, but I'm not
truly convinced that these beautiful birds are...Are YOU?
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| Harpy Eagle |
At any rate we will go on with the Rare Harpy Eagle that is now found from
Mexico [
Which is almost EXTINCT], through Central American and into South American.
Also can be found as far as Argentina too. These Eagles are mostly common in Brazil, where it
is found across the entire national territory. I have found that these beautiful birds of prey can be also
found in some areas of Panama too, but they are almost extinct in Central America .. And this is
due to the subsequent to the over logging of much of the rainforest that these rare beautiful creatures
lived in. Hence their homes are being ripped, torched, and over logged away so much that they have nowhere to go and to breed their young. This is way they are on the brink of Extinction.
These Harpy Eagle inhabits most of the tropical lowland rainforest's and many occur within such areas
from the canopy to the emergent vegetation. Harpy Eagles typically live below the elevation of
3,000ft/900m , but have been recorded at some elevations of even 6,6000ft/2,000m. It is said that this
amazing birds of prey well in the rainforest will on the hunt high up in the canopy or even sometimes even
on the ground if they feel save, usually will perch on emergent trees looking for the prey. They don't
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| Harpy Eagle |
generally occur in disturbed areas but will regularly visit semi-open forest/pasture mosaic, mainly for hunting
forays. As far as ideal habitats for nests and breeding it seems that they stay fairly close together. This makes
since to keep close to watch over their young as a group.. In some parts of Panama and Guyana the
nests could be about 1.9mi/3km apart from each other. But the more I read each area of the place that they
were found to live the breeding patterns were very different some were closer together other a litter farther
from each other. It really depended on the location. They also like the tallest of all the trees too.
As far a the Eggs well the Female Harpy will lay only two white eggs in a large stick nest which is quite
large measuring about 1.2m /3.9ft deep & 1.5m/4.9ft across and many be used over several years. They
usually put the nest at the highest point of the tree usually at a fork of the tree. In many South American
cultures it is considered bad luck to cut down the kapok tree, which may hep safeguard the habitat of
this stately eagle. The bird also use other huge trees to build its nests on such as the Brazil nut tree.
I found a bit of interesting facts about the harpy eagles. It seems that a pair of harpy eagles usually only raise one chick every 2-3 years. and after the first chick hatches the second egg is totally ignored and normally fails to hatch unless the first egg perishes. Kinda sad but that's nature and that's why we need to help save these amazing Eagles..
Some interesting Facts:
Harpy eagles takes almost 3 days to digest a meal and may hunt only twice a week-
The young harpy eagles may revert back to the tree where it was born, as long as the tree is
not occupied by its parents-
The heaviest harpy eagle weigh around 27 lbs.-
Harpy eagles are aerobatics of all eagles species-
They swoop in at a speed of up to 48mph.-
After doing this post on the Harpy Eagles sadly I found that the Harpy Eagle has found a
spot on the endangered species list. The Endangered Harpy Eagle often falls victim to numerous threats,
causing their population numbers to diminish. As the human population continues to grow around them,
their population numbers continues to drop fast.
The main threat that I found of the Harpy Eagles is the loss of their natural habitat due to deforestation.
Which I know you all know about.. Its all over the world . In ever country of the world so its not just
on country problem it the whole Earth problem that we as a people have to do something very soon or we
will loose all our wildlife before this century is is done. The main problem of deforestation is
LOGGING.
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| Baby harpy with Parent |
Logging is harming and destroying their natural habitat. Which is Large portions of the Rainforest's all over the world that are lost every min,day and year as the demand for the logging world continues to grow. We
will continue to loose Rare jewels like the Harpy Eagles.. Another is the loss of rainforest cause the
Harpy Eagle to struggle to survive. Not only are the tree they call home being lost, but the trees for them
to nest to raise their young are being lost. The deforestation is causing their food supply to become limited as well. But there is hope- there are projects being done to help these amazing and beautiful birds, to help
with their re-population. The projects that I found that are being done are to help with the limits in
the amounts of destruction caused by deforestation. They have programs works that will be working with
the local logging companies and the South American government to try to get them to limit the amount
of logging in the area's where the harpy habitat is and other area's too. Another is the protection of the
Harpy Eagles nesting sites. This program will work a special locations to protect the eagles while they nest.
Well I hope that you all found this post to be interesting and informative too. I sometimes try
show my feelings when it comes to nature and man. I hope I haven't been offense to anyone
I just get a bit passionate about the animals and nature. I do love you all
and I hope you have a lovely day:o Below are two links that you might find interesting.
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Good afternoon my dears Followers & Friends I want to introduce you to the Fuzanglong Dragon. The Ancient Chinese Dragon of 'Hidden Treasure'. He is one of four Ancient Chinese types of Dragons: There is the Celestial Dragon [Tianlong], who guards the heavenly dwellings of the Gods; the Fuzanglong Dragon 
