The Haribon Foundation, with the
support of the Disney’s Friends
for Change has produced a 6-minute video aimed at children on
deforestation and its impacts, and what Haribon is doing to tackle the problem
and restore degraded forests as part of BirdLife’s Forests of Hope programme.
For several years, Haribon has
been implementing a conservation project in the Sierra Madre, the longest
mountain range in the Philippines,
on the island of Luzon. The Sierra Madre supports one of the
largest remaining forest blocks, and one of the richest wildlife communities
known from any forest area in the country. It is the home to one of the biggest
eagles in the world the Philippine Eagle.
The Philippine
Eagle - Pithecophaga jefferyi - also known as the Monkey-eating
Eagle, is endemic to the Philippines.
It is the Philippine National Bird and is one of the rarest, largest, and most
powerful birds in the world. It is on four major islands in the Philippines.
Description
The Philippine
Eagle's nape is adorned with long brown feathers that form a shaggy crest. They
have a dark face and a creamy-brown nape and crown. The back is dark brown,
while the underside and underwings are white. The heavy legs are yellow with
large, powerful dark claws. The bill is large, high-arched, deep and
bluish-gray. The eyes are blue-gray. Juveniles are similar to adults except
that their upperpart feathers have pale fringes.
Call
Adults - loud,
high-pitched whistles, young have a series of high-pitched calls when begging
for food.
Food
The primary prey
varies from island to island depending on species availability. On Luzan Island
the prey is made up of are monkeys, birds, giant cloud-rats and reptiles such
as large snakes and lizards. On Mindanao
Island it is the
Philippine Flying Lemur.
Breeding
Breeding begins
between September and February and the complete breeding cycle of the
Philippine Eagle lasts two years. The nest is a huge platform made of sticks
and is frequently reused the same nesting site for several breeding seasons. The
female lays one egg, occasionally two. Both birds incubate the egg for a period
of between 58 to 68 days. The young bird is feed by both parents and fledges after
four or five months. The parents care for the young for approximately 20
months.
Conservation Status – Critically Endangered
Between 180 and
500 Philippine Eagles survive in the Philippines. They are threatened
primarily by deforestation through logging and expanding agriculture. Old
growth forest is being lost at a high rate. Mining, pollution, exposure to
pesticides and poaching are major threats. The Philippine Eagle Foundation has
successfully bred Philippine Eagles in captivity for over a decade and
conducted the first experimental release of a captive-bred eagle to the wild.
The foundation has 32 eagles at its center, of which 18 were bred in captivity.
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