Animals On Earth: India, Asia, China, Hawaii, And Madagascar

Philipine Eagle

The Philippine eagle is one of the rarest eagles in the world. It is a giant bird of prey that can only be seen on 4 islands in the Philippines.

The Philippine eagle is considered the largest of the extant eagles in the world in terms of length and wing surface area.

It was formerly known as the Monkey-eating Eagle, as reports from natives told that the raptor preyed exclusively on monkeys. This was later found to be incorrect as more recent studies have revealed the species to prey on a variety of animals ranging from rodents and bats to pigs and monitor lizards.

The Philippine eagle has a dark face and a creamy-brown nape and crown. Its nape is adorned with long, brown feathers that form a shaggy, manelike crest. The back of the Philippine eagle is dark brown, while the underside and underwings are white. The heavy legs are yellow, with large, powerful, dark claws, and the prominent, large, high-arched, deep beak is a bluish-gray. The eagle's eyes are blue-gray. Juveniles are similar to adults except their upperpart feathers have pale fringes.

Philippine eagles are found in the Philippines and occur on four major islands: eastern Luzon, Samar, Leyte, and Mindanao. They inhabit moist and montane forests, particularly in steep and rugged areas.

Philippine eagles are generally solitary and spend time singly or in mated pairs. They are active during the day and at night they rest. Philippine eagles primarily use two hunting techniques. One is still-hunting, in which they watch for prey activity while sitting almost motionlessly on a branch near the canopy. The other is perch-hunting, which entails periodically gliding from one perch to another. While perch-hunting, they often work their way gradually down from the canopy down the branches, and if not successful in finding prey in their initial foray, they fly or circle back up to the top of the trees to work them again. Eagle pairs sometimes hunt troops of monkeys cooperatively, with one bird perching nearby to distract the primates, allowing the other to swoop in from behind, hopefully unnoticed, for the kill. Philippine eagles communicate vocally and the most frequently heard noises include loud, high-pitched whistles ending with inflections in pitch. When begging for food, juveniles are known to produce a series of high-pitched calls.

Philippine eagles are carnivores. Their diet includes monkeys, birds, flying foxes, giant cloud-rats, Asian palm civets, flying squirrels, tree squirrels, fruit bats, reptiles (large snakes and lizards), and even other birds of prey. They will also feed on flying lemurs in some locations and have been reported to capture even young pigs and small dogs.