Birds
Philippine Eagle
Pithecophaga jefferyi · also called Philippine eagle, monkey-eating eagle, great Philippine eagle, haribon
The Philippine eagle is a giant of the rainforest canopy — a metre-tall raptor with a mane of feathers it flares into a lion-like crest, powerful enough to take flying lemurs, monkeys, and hornbills. It is also one of the rarest birds on Earth, with fewer than 400 pairs left in the last fragments of Philippine forest.
Overview
The Philippine eagle is endemic to four islands — Luzon, Samar, Leyte, and Mindanao — living in tall lowland and montane rainforest. Its wings are broad and short for manoeuvring under the canopy rather than soaring. Staple prey are colugos (flying lemurs) and tree squirrels, plus monkeys, hornbills, other raptors, flying foxes, snakes, and monitor lizards, taken by dropping from a perch or hunting in pairs.
One of the world’s biggest eagles
At up to 1 m tall and 8 kg, it rivals the harpy eagle and Steller’s sea eagle as the largest living eagle — the longest by some measures.
Why it is Critically Endangered
A pair needs 25–100 km² of intact forest and raises just one chick every two years. As Philippine rainforest has been logged and cleared, the number of possible territories has collapsed, and eagles are also shot, trapped, and poisoned. Fewer than 400 pairs remain.
Status
The Philippine eagle is Critically Endangered and still declining. It is the national bird, killing one carries up to 12 years in prison, and the Philippine Eagle Foundation runs captive breeding, nest protection, and community programmes to keep its forest standing.
Philippine Eagle: common questions
Is the Philippine eagle the biggest eagle in the world?
It is one of the three largest, and by some measures the largest. Measured by length it is the longest eagle, at up to about a metre from bill to tail. By wingspan it is beaten by the larger sea eagles. By weight the Steller's sea eagle and the harpy eagle are on average heavier, though large female Philippine eagles overlap with them. So the honest answer is that the Philippine eagle, the harpy eagle, and the Steller's sea eagle are the three biggest living eagles, and which is "the biggest" depends on whether you rank by length, wingspan, or mass. All three dwarf familiar eagles like the golden and bald eagle.
Does the Philippine eagle really eat monkeys?
Sometimes, but it is not its main food, and the old name "monkey-eating eagle" was misleading enough that it was officially dropped in 1978. Studies of prey remains at nests show that the eagle's staple across most of its range is the Philippine flying lemur, or colugo, a gliding tree mammal, along with tree squirrels, cloud rats, large birds such as hornbills and other eagles and owls, flying foxes, snakes, and monitor lizards. Macaques are taken where they are common, particularly on some islands, but they are one prey item among many, not a specialisation.
Why is the Philippine eagle so endangered?
The core problem is that it needs vast tracts of old, structurally complex rainforest, and the Philippines has lost the great majority of its original forest cover to logging, mining, and conversion to farmland. A single pair may require 25 to 100 square kilometres, so as forest is cleared and fragmented the number of territories that can exist collapses. On top of habitat loss, eagles are shot by hunters, caught in traps set for other animals or deliberately for the illegal wildlife trade, and occasionally poisoned or electrocuted. And because a pair raises only one chick every two years and young birds take five or more years to breed, the species simply cannot replace losses quickly. Fewer than 400 pairs are thought to remain.
What is being done to save it?
The main organisation is the Philippine Eagle Foundation, based in Davao on Mindanao, which runs a captive-breeding centre that has bred dozens of eagles, some released to the wild, and carries out nest monitoring, forest protection, and community education and livelihood programmes so that local people benefit from keeping eagle forest standing. The eagle is fully legally protected, with killing one punishable by up to 12 years in prison. Conservationists also work to establish and defend protected areas on the key islands, respond to reports of injured or captured birds, and use the eagle as a flagship species to argue for the protection of Philippine rainforest as a whole.