HARPY EAGLE – SHORT TOUR
Join us on this fabulous short tour for an opportunity to observe and photograph the mighty Harpy Eagle! We are lucky enough to have access to an active Harpy Eagle nest, which all being well will remain active until November 2022. The nest site is located some 5 hours drive from Cuiaba. Once at the location, you will have access to a tower that has been constructed at a safe distance opposite the nesting tree, allowing fantastic photographic opportunities of this amazing raptor!
The young eagle at the Lambari nest will be 5 months old on 1st July 2022 and at THAT point, it is the full size of its parents, so it qualifies as a “full-grown, adult-sized” Harpy Eagle. The young eagle will hop around in its nest tree, from branch to branch for a few weeks, and then when it is approximately 6 months old (in early August) it should start to fly to trees near its nest tree and then fly back to the nest tree. In the period from 1st August to 1st November, the young eagle should be in its nest tree for part of each day, with a smaller percentage of the time in the nest tree as time passes. By November, it might be returning to its nest tree for only 5% or 10% of the day, but it should return.
Guests who want to maximize their chance of seeing either this full-grown young eagle or its parents need to spend ALL day on top of the tower.
The Harpy tower manager will be on the tower all day, but about 8-12 stairs down, to see if one of the full-grown eagles appears during the day and will alert the group.
At a typical Harpy nest, the probabilities of seeing a FULL GROWN eagle (full mature adult or full-sized juvenile) are:
1) hatchling to 45 days of age, chance of seeing an adult is 100% per day until 30 days old and 90% per day until 60 days.
2) from 61 to 90 days, chance of an adult showing up at the nest during 12 hours of observation from sunrise to sunset is 60%.
3) from 91 days to 150 days, the chance of an adult showing up is 30% per day.
4) at 150 days of age, meaning 5 months of age, the young eagle is then the size of its parents and is a “full-grown Harpy Eagle”.
The probability of an adult eagle visiting the nest when the young bird is 5 to 10 months of age is 15-25%.
These are the probabilities at “normal nests” of Harpy Eagles.
The adults at this Lambari nest, however, have proven to be much more doting, more present than the adult birds at most other nests that have been observed. Specifically, during the last nesting event of this “Lambari pair”, one or the other of the adult birds was at the nest on 50% or more of the days until the young was 150 days old. We are not sure if this higher percentage of probability will happen again in this nesting event, but it seems likely that it will.
The Harpy Camp will open on 14th March 2022 through until 15th November 2022. The Harpy Camp is 1000m from the nest tree, so you can drive in 3 minutes from the camp to the parking spot to then walk 100m, then take a boat for 30m and walk an additional 40m to the tower.
Facilities at the Harpy Camp are basic but comfortable and allow you the best opportunity to spend some time with this truly amazing species.
