The Philippine eagle was also named as the Monkey-eating eagle with a scientific name of Pithecophage Jefferyi. This eagle is among of the worlds, rarest, largest as well as one of the most powerful bird eagle.
The Philippine eagle can be found in the Philippine forest especially in the forest of Mindanao. The bird was considered as the Philippines national bird. It is now considered as one of the endangered specie in the world making the government to pass law for its protection.
The eagle was discovered by the English explorer and naturalist named John Whitehead in the year 1896. There are recent studies which show that the Philippine eagle has a unique evolutionary history because its genetic sequence was found to differ from the other eagle. However some studies suggested that the closest relative of the Philippine eagle could have been the smaller snake eagle.
The eagle is having a dark face as well as a creamy-brown nape and crown, its back is brown in color and the underside as well as its under wings are found to be white. It has yellowish, heavy and large legs with powerful dark colored claws. The color of the eagle’s eye is in blue-gray.
The eagles can be seen in different Islands in the Philippines, in some parts of Luzon, as well as in the islands of Samar, Leyte and other major Islands especially in the island of Mindanao where they are several in numbers.
The Philippine eagle is considered as the dominant hunter in the Philippine forest considering that there are no other major predators that exist.
The breeding pair of the Philippine Eagle most likely requires a large area of about 25 to 50 square miles to breed naturally. They have a life expectancy of 30 to 60 years when living in the wild.
The Philippine Eagle is feed from different species such as monkeys, flying lemurs, small mammals, birds, lizards, snakes and several others. Their diet depends their living environment where there are different species to prey.
In reproduction, the female Philippine Eagle matures sexually at five years of age while the male is at seven. These eagles are considered as monogamous, they prefer to have one partner for the rest of their life. They only wanted to search for other mates if their partner dies eventually.
The Philippine Eagle is conserved currently in the Philippine Eagle Foundation in the City of Davao, Mindanao Philippines
Leave Your Comments