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  Profile

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  In flight

Birds of Prey

Philippine Eagle

Pithecophaga jefferyi

• legendary
• 48 km/h
• Critically Endangered

The monkey-eating eagle. Largest eagle by wing surface area. Filipino national treasure.

Population

Roughly 400 breeding pairs per the Philippine Eagle Foundation; other sources estimate 180-600 (Wikipedia) to fewer than 500 (The Peregrine Fund) total wild individuals -- treat as an approximate, not-fully-reconciled figure in the low hundreds of pairs / low-to-mid hundreds of individuals

Habitat

Dipterocarp and mid-montane forest on steep terrain, from lowlands up to roughly 1,800 m elevation; increasingly restricted to mountain forest as lowland forest is cleared

Fun fact

The Philippine Eagle has one of the longest breeding cycles of any raptor: a monogamous pair, together for life, typically rears just a single chick once every two years, with the fledgling remaining dependent on its parents for up to 17 months.

Range

Endemic to the Philippines, surviving only on four islands: Luzon, Samar, Leyte, and Mindanao (largest surviving population on Mindanao)

Diet

Apex forest predator taking flying lemurs (colugos, up to ~90% of diet at some sites), monkeys/macaques, civets, flying squirrels/tree squirrels, snakes, monitor lizards, and large birds (e.g. hornbills)

Size

0.95 m

Lifespan

30 years