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A family of harpies from the Amazon rainforest
These remarkable images of rare South American harpies were taken by a group of professional naturalist photographers in the Amazon rainforest. Jeff Cremer, Lucas Bustamante and Jaime Culebras are experts in the study of rare animals in the Americas.
These eagles are among the largest and most powerful predators in America, but they are also the rarest among the birds of prey of this continent. Rarely do you find harpies in the wild. However, these three photographers managed to observe the entire harpy family for two days.
“We had to penetrate deep into the rainforest before we met these harpies,” says Jeff Kremer. We watched a male and female feed their furry and insatiable chick. We got close enough to shoot the birds at full height.
It doesn’t happen every day, it’s like meeting a unicorn. When my friends Lucas Bustamante and Jaime Culebras wrote me on Facebook that they had found the harpy nest, I immediately ordered a ticket and flew to them. You have no idea how lucky it is to see such rare birds.
The South American harpy (Latin Harpia harpyja) is a large bird of prey from the family of hawks (Latin Accipitridae). The only species of its kind. The body length of this bird is from 90 to 110 cm, the wingspan is about 2 meters. The weight of the female reaches 6-9 kg, the male is slightly smaller - from 4 to 4.8 kg. Harpies possess dangerous weapons (sharp claws and powerful beak) with which they easily cut their prey (monkeys and sloths).
Despite their size, they are rarely seen floating in the sky. The harpies prefer to hunt from an ambush, hiding in dense tree crowns. This behavior is more like predatory cats. In addition, harpies are difficult to detect because their hunting grounds range from 3,000 to 7,000 hectares of forest.
“We were very lucky,” says Lucas Bustamante. We managed to capture jaguars, tapirs, cougars and even new (recently discovered) animals, but harpy and even with offspring we shot for the first time.
Source: zoopicture.ru
These eagles are among the largest and most powerful predators in America, but they are also the rarest among the birds of prey of this continent. Rarely do you find harpies in the wild. However, these three photographers managed to observe the entire harpy family for two days.
“We had to penetrate deep into the rainforest before we met these harpies,” says Jeff Kremer. We watched a male and female feed their furry and insatiable chick. We got close enough to shoot the birds at full height.
It doesn’t happen every day, it’s like meeting a unicorn. When my friends Lucas Bustamante and Jaime Culebras wrote me on Facebook that they had found the harpy nest, I immediately ordered a ticket and flew to them. You have no idea how lucky it is to see such rare birds.
The South American harpy (Latin Harpia harpyja) is a large bird of prey from the family of hawks (Latin Accipitridae). The only species of its kind. The body length of this bird is from 90 to 110 cm, the wingspan is about 2 meters. The weight of the female reaches 6-9 kg, the male is slightly smaller - from 4 to 4.8 kg. Harpies possess dangerous weapons (sharp claws and powerful beak) with which they easily cut their prey (monkeys and sloths).
Despite their size, they are rarely seen floating in the sky. The harpies prefer to hunt from an ambush, hiding in dense tree crowns. This behavior is more like predatory cats. In addition, harpies are difficult to detect because their hunting grounds range from 3,000 to 7,000 hectares of forest.
“We were very lucky,” says Lucas Bustamante. We managed to capture jaguars, tapirs, cougars and even new (recently discovered) animals, but harpy and even with offspring we shot for the first time.
Source: zoopicture.ru
