Harpy Eagle Chick
Posted at 1:06 pm December 11, 2008 by Beau Parks
On Monday, December 1, the San Diego Zoo welcomed its newest addition, a baby harpy eagle Harpia harpyja, the 14th hatched at the Zoo since 1994.
The Zoo’s pair of adult harpy eagles laid a single egg in their exhibit on October 10. Ten days later, the egg was pulled and set in an incubator, where its development could be carefully watched by the keepers at the Avian Propagation Center (APC). We weighed the egg daily to make sure that it was losing the right amount of water as the chick developed inside. We also monitored the progression of the embryo using a technique called “candling.”
When a bright light is shone through an egg, it allows the keepers to see what’s happening on the inside and keep an eye on the chick’s development throughout its incubation.
After 51 days in the egg, the chick began its escape the night of November 30, and after a long day of determined pecking, finally broke free at 7:15 the following evening. The new chick, wet and exhausted, weighed in at 2.58 ounces or 73.15 grams (or about half as much as a baseball). It was a humble beginning for one of the world’s largest eagle species. Female harpy eagles (the larger sex) can grow to be 20 pounds (9 kilograms); in the wild, they use their powerful feet and needle-sharp talons to snatch their prey from tree branches in the Central and South American rain forests. All of that seemed a little ambitious at that moment, though, as the freshly-hatched chick curled up to sleep off a long day’s work.
The following morning, we moved the chick into its new home in the APC’s “Brooder Room.” A brooder is a warm, humid box that mimics the environment under a parent bird. It is important that the chick never become imprinted on its human surrogates, so this particular brooder is covered with a towel, set behind a curtain, and continuously serenaded by a CD of soothing rain forest sounds to drown out the keepers’ voices. When it comes time to feed the baby, we put a sheet (or “ghost”) over our head and use a harpy eagle puppet to deliver the food.
The chick finally woke up and took its first small meal of diced pinkie mice at 4 p.m., 21 hours after hatching. It was the beginning of a gluttony that will turn this 73-ounce puffball into the most powerful avian predator on Earth!
Be sure to check back for regular updates.
Beau Parks is a keeper at the San Diego Zoo.
Read another blog about the San Diego Zoo’s harpy eagles
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December 11th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Thanks for the great news, Beau. I always enjoy watching the magnificent Harpies, as do most zoo guests, and it’s a real thrill to see them occasionally fly across their flight cage. I wish the new chick all the best, and hope it may one day be returned to its native Central America.
December 11th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
The white fluffy feathers make this little chick a cutie! It will grow up into a fierce hunter one day, but right now it looks adorably cuddly.
Why was the egg taken from the nest? Have you had problems with the parents raising their young?
Thank you for the great blog. Congratulations on the successful hatching and good luck on the round-the-clock raising of the chick.
December 12th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
how cute
December 15th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Hi, Mae.
Thank you for your interest in our eaglet! We pull all of our harpy eagle pair’s eggs for artificial incubation and hand rearing. The adults have been unsuccessful with eggs and young in the past, and with a rare species like harpy eagles, we prefer to have as much control as possible.
December 20th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Congratulations on your Harpy Eagle Chick! Our own female Milky Eagle owl chick is on her way to SDZ and/or Wild Animal Park. She’s really peaked my interest in the predatory birds. Look forward to hearing how your Harpy Eagle grows.
December 20th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Hi! Congrats on the birth of the harpy eagle chick! You all must be really excited about this newest addition to the eagle family. One question: Why won’t you allow the harpy eagle mom to raise and feed the chick? Seems a little bit cruel to not allow the mom to do her job. The fuss of hiding yourselves and using puppets to feed the chick can be lessened a great deal by letting the mom take care of the chick if you don’t want the chick to imprint on you. The harpy eagle mom needs to be able to use her own maternal instincts to take care of the chick, and in that way, the chick will imprint on his own momma eagle and not the humans.
The pics were just adorable, especially after the chick dried his fuzzy down and opened his eyes!
Hope you can let us know what the gender is as soon as you are able to determine that.
Chari Mercier
St. Pete, FL
May 18th, 2009 at 10:55 am
ihi its ——- and i think they are one of the cutes spicies of baby birds