Davao : the home of the Philippine Eagle

Norita Scott-Pezett of Audubon-Panama, a fellow BirdLife International Global Council member (1999-2004), was shocked when I told her that, as far as I know, their Harpy Eagle (Harpia harpyja) is the largest eagle in the world! “What?” she responded incredulously. “I thought all along that your Philippine Eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi) is the largest in the world!” Huh? Really?

Since then I started to doubt what I used to know and gladly suspected that she was right. I began to believe that the Haring Ibon is the largest eagle in the world even without any solid basis yet, save for my hazy recollection of two specimens displayed in the Smithsonian Museum at Washington, D.C.

Who or what authority proclaims which eagle is the largest in the world, anyway? What would be the basis? I personally had no access to any documents about it. Or perhaps, I was not looking hard enough in the right places.

Then on September 26, 2004, Haribon Executive Director Anabelle Plantilla and I had a meeting with Dr. Robert Kennedy at the Harvard University Museum of Natural History in Boston. (Dr. Kennedy is the principal author of the book A Guide to the Birds of the Philippines. He has extensively studied the Haring Ibon with excellent video documentation. He is a founding member of the Haribon Foundation).

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