Ornate From Head To Toe

Ornate hawk-eagle legs, Bird Hall, Carnegie Museum (photo by Kate St. John)
Legs of the ornate hawk-eagle, Bird Hall at Carnegie Museum (photo by Kate St. John)

14 February 2017

Museums inspire me.

The first time I saw the ornate hawk-eagle specimen at Carnegie Museum I didn’t even know the bird existed.  Its beauty impressed me (ornate legs shown above) and that was before I learned what he can do with his head feathers!  (photo below from Wikimedia Commons)

I hoped to see this bird in the wild some day, but I never expected it would happen.

Ornate hawk-eagle (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Ornate hawk-eagle (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Ornate hawk-eagles (Spizaetus ornatus) live in the rainforest from southeastern Mexico to Colombia but are rarely seen.  Their numbers are declining because of deforestation, so it was quite a thrill when our Road Scholar birding group saw one at San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica on 4 February 2017.  We learned afterward that none had been seen in the area since a flyover two years before and prior to that 10 years.  We were very lucky.

This video from the Organization for Tropical Studies shows how beautiful they are.

video embedded from Organization for Tropical Studies on YouTube

Ornate hawk-eagle voices are high pitched, similar to those of bald eagles and ospreys.  The bird we saw made no sound.

video embedded from American Bird Conservancy on YouTube

(credits are in the captions)

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