Philippine Eagle - The National Bird Of The Philippines

Philippine Eagle – The National Bird Of The Philippines

PHILIPPINE EAGLE – In this topic, we will now know and talk about the national bird of the Philippines, called the Philippine eagle.

Also known as monkey-eating eagle or the great Philippine eagle, it is one of the largest eagles for its wing length and surface. It is also an endangered species of the Accipitridae family as they only have about 400 pairs left in the forests.

The eagle is encdemic only to the forests of the Philippines. It has a brown and white-coloured plumage and a shaggy crest.

The eagle was discovered by English explorer John Whitehead who first saw its kind in the municipality of Paranas in Samar on June 1896.

Why is it called monkey-eating eagle?

This is due to the discovery of what believed to be undigested monkey parts from a dissected species and the testimony of natives that it fed mainly on monkeys. Hence, it got its name.

Its scientific name also described the eagle. The name is Pithecophaga jefferyi where Pithecophaga means monkey-eater and jefferyi is derived from Whitehead’s father Jeffery.

Why It Should Not Be Called Monkey-eating?

According to FilipiKnow, decades later, further studies of the eagle showed that the eagle simply did not restrict its appetite only to monkeys since it also killed lemurs, civets, bats, snakes, lizards, and even other birds of prey.

Hence, in 1978, President Ferdinand Marcos made Proclamation No. 1732 which removed the term monkey eating in the name, which also sounded offensive to Filipinos.

How it became the national bird?

President Fidel Ramos issued Proclamation No. 615, which makes the eagle the national bird of the Philippines, succeeding the maya.