Greetings from Refugio Amazonas - We're back at our Tambopata research site after a break, and I recently reviewed the HarpyCam footage where you'll see how the male harpy eagle protects his chick.
First of all, look how fast the chick is growing!
Harpy eagle with chick by Rainforest expeditions
One way to observe this is how the feather patterns of the baby harpy eagle are changing and how active it is becoming. In upcoming HarpyCam videos, posted on our YouTube channel.
The harpy's behavior has raised many questions for me. Let me start with the one that is driving me crazy: I wonder if the chick could have survived without Dad's protection? let's review the details.
I observed on August 13, 2017 at 14:43: The chick is alone in the nest and suddenly a strong wind starts blowing, coming from the north. Just a minute later, Baawaja (the father) appears and stands between the strong wind and the chick. The wind increases, moving all the branches around and the trees behind the nest. A storm has suddenly taken over the forest.
Three minutes later, at 14:46: it starts to rain; the chick shakes its body and stands comfortably between the legs of the male harpy eagle (Baawaja). In this position, the chick is completely protected by him from the storm winds. Because of the strong wind, the camera is a bit out of focus, and the sky gets so dark that I can barely see what is happening in the nest as the rain hits Baawaja's back (see image below).
Two minutes later, the nest is surrounded by the storm. The nest shakes so ferociously that it must seem like the end of the world to the harpies. But Baawaja, undaunted, stands on his huge claws withstanding the rain and wind, always protecting the chick. The branches of the tree shake violently and, at that moment, our camera is not even pointed at the nest. - I wonder how the chick is doing.
14:49 : The wind and rain die down. Our camera focuses on the nest again and through the clouds the silhouette of Baawaja becomes visible again.
Gradually, the jungle returns to normal, the leaves of the trees begin to reflect the sun and I can see that Baawaja is completely soaked but safe and sound. I also see a white "thing" between his legs, it's the chick! -I'm relieved to see that he's okay.
Finally, fifteen minutes after the storm ceased, Baawaja steps back. Every drop of water glistens on all his feathers, and the chick appears, not only safe, but dry.
Dad protected his son, without hesitation. Two minutes later, he leaves the nest, and here's the interesting part - for the past thirteen days, we haven't seen him in the nest at all!
First of all, why does the male come around so little? During the incubation period, he was in charge of feeding Kee Wai (the female) while she was in the nest doing the hard work, but since the egg hatched, he has only shown up five or six times, mostly to bring in a prey item and leave right after. It seems that Kee Wai (mom) is shouldering most of the responsibility for hunting, feeding the chick, and bringing branches to the nest to cool it and repel the insect community flying around.
But, at the very moment this powerful storm hit, he showed up to protect the chick. What might have happened to the chick if he hadn't shown up? Would it have fallen to the ground? The wind was strong enough, in my opinion, to have caused it to fall. The chick is growing rapidly, but I don't think it was big enough to stand without Dad's help.
How is it possible that just 20 seconds after the wind started blowing, Baawaja, the male harpy eagle, was ready to protect his chick, even though he rarely appears in the nest? Did he know, before it started, that it was going to be so strong, so dangerous that the chick might not survive? Are harpy eagles that intuitive?
Another question: why didn't the mother, Kee Wai, show up during the storm? She is the one who is usually around the nest and tends to hunt, feed the chick, and bring branches to the nest, so her absence seems more noticeable. Maybe she wasn't around? Perhaps she thought the chick could weather the storm?
These and other questions come to mind since I've seen that video. I don't know the answers, I'm just trying to put things in order to figure out how these wonderful raptors behave and, as you can see, I'm in for a tough but incredibly exciting job.
