hawk eagle main

The host of the Wildlife Warriors Podcast reflects on their journey so far and expresses excitement for the upcoming year. They introduce the black and white hawk eagle as the topic for this episode and provide information on its appearance, habitat, hunting behavior, and diet. However, there are gaps in knowledge regarding the bird's lifespan and mating behavior. Overall, the podcast host is enthusiastic about sharing animal facts and looks forward to the future of the podcast. Welcome back to another episode of Wildlife Warriors Podcast. I am your host, the one, the only, Seriana, and I want to thank each and every one of you for showing up today, for listening to another episode, the last episode of 2022. It's crazy. Like, I just started the podcast this year. We've already done almost two cycles, do the animal classes, and it's been great. It's been amazing. I love this journey. I love growing as a person, individual, anyway, but I love growing with this podcast. I'm learning editing and how to, y'all don't see the audio visual record, which I'll someday post, but all of this is like a learning curve for me, but it's exciting. I've always loved talking about animals and it's even more exciting to kind of embark on that journey in a different way, instead of just working in the field and not directly studying that field, but to share my passions, which is teaching people stuff and to talk about animals and get excited about something, you know, we all care about learning new facts, you know? So yeah, it's just kind of a little reflection moment, you guys, I'm sorry, but thank you everybody for coming again to another podcast episode. I will be continuing strong in 2023. I will be taking a slightly different direction on the next season. This is still technically season one. So if you started from the beginning, what's up, thank you for following along. If this is your first episode, I'm glad to have you. I'm glad you came, but I need you to go back and listen to those other episodes as well, because they're just as important and there's a lot of cool facts that you missed. So come on now, you need to go back and get all of your information. You're here, you might as well get them all. So I'm looking forward to 2023. I'm looking forward to all the new opportunities personally in my life that will be coming, but also to expand this podcast and kick it up a notch. Like we're still in the trial and error phase for a lot of stuff. I'm still learning, y'all still listening, still gaining traction. But yeah, you just wait. Great things are coming. So that being said, we're going to get right into it after my little spiel. And I know y'all came here to listen to animal facts. So that's what we're going to do. We're going to spit out animal facts and get on with it. This week, I am going over a bird we, um, wow, just drew a blank. That's crazy. Last week, we did an invertebrate and we did the Atlas moth. And this week, we're doing a bird. And this week, or last time we talked about a bird, we talked about the cassowary, which is this huge tropical bird that looks like a mix of a emu and a peacock kind of color. But this week, we are going to talk about the black and white hawk eagle, black and white hawk eagle. It is a hawk and an eagle from what I could find, um, very weird, I mean, very weird name. But the black and white hawk eagle is just like it says, it is huge bird that is, i.e. black and white. That's the name. You can find this bird in the neotropical area of Southern Mexico to Eastern Peru. It is a Central American bird. Um, along in this, you can also find in Brazil. You can also find in Northern Argentina, the most popular place that you will find it is Mexico. Okay. So it is usually found around the forest edges, gaps, um, clearing sometimes on forest remains in the savannas, but usually it's high up in the trees when it is in, um, when it is waiting on a branch, but when it's not waiting on a branch, you often find in the air, flying, soaring, doing what it do, um, a lot of hawks and eagles flying, soaring through the air a lot of their time if they're not on a branch. So that's usually what you'll find it doing. It is a big bird, you guys. Okay. I know some of y'all like big birds. Okay. It is a big bird. It is 20 to 24 inches in length. Um, that is around two feet tall, around 46 inches. Yeah, I said that right. Almost, almost, not quite, almost four feet wingspan. Okay. Look, a four foot is, I don't know, I was about to say the size of like an eight year old, but these kids these days are big. So it's just big. Okay. Look, it's, it's pretty big. So it's, for those of you on this podcast that are listening that are kind of short, if you're five foot, take one foot from that. That's how big this wingspan, the wings open up. So yeah, you don't want to be anywhere close when it's flapping its wings, it's getting close. It's a big wingspan. It might take you out. On top of that, so we talked about the body length. Um, we talked about the wingspan. So the other thing is the weight. The weight is around roughly close to two pounds. It's 1.8 pounds. If you want to get technical, it is 30 ounces. Um, but regardless, that's usually the typical size of an adult. I do want to say it is a rare bird that a lot of behavior and other stuff has not been studied. So y'all, I tried as best I could to gather as many facts to bring to y'all as I could, but just know some, there's still some gaps in this little timeline. Okay. Not everything is known about this bird. Some people have some, there's a lot of overlapping facts of what was known, but then there's some inconsistencies. So if an inconsistency comes up on when two facts or so didn't match up, it was a little off. I'm gonna let y'all know. But this is what I got. This is what I found. This is what I got to give. This is all. Um, so like I said, or like the name says, it is black and white for the most part. Its head, its chest, also known as the breast and the leg feathers are almost a pure snow white. It is so pretty. You guys, it is a beautiful bird. Um, I will be posting photos on or a video or both on my Instagram at wildlife wonders podcast. You should go follow that. But also if you want to look it up, it's a black and white Hawk Eagle. And then you look at it, it is white for the most part around. The reason why it is a black and white Hawk Eagle is because the back and the crest around the beak is black. It also has this really cool black mask around his eyes. So it looks like a burglar in a way. Um, it also reminds me of, um, a raccoon. It reminds me of a raccoon, but it doesn't look, it looks intense. Like, yeah, I see you. I'm staring at you. But at the same time, it's like really, what's the word? Um, it's aesthetically pleasing. It's very pretty. Also, it has yellow eyes and, uh, I think it's pronounced seer, but I would just say the seer or tear or whatever is pronounced. It's the top of the beak. It is yellow, orange, more so to me on the yellow side, but I guess it depends on female male. I'm not sure. It has bright yellow feet. Um, the beak is black and then it has tail. Um, it's tail has like black and gray bands around it, but overall for most part, it is white and black. There's some other colors there, but mostly white and black. Okay. Pretty bird, big bird, huge wingspan. Now, like many other hawks and eagles, they are top tier birds. They're like the top of the food chain. Okay. They're like the mafia of the forest. There is not much that can mess with these birds. First of all, they fly very high. So who's coming up there to get them? Nobody. Nobody. Second of all, they're, um, they are birds of prey. That means they eat a lot of prey. They can eat other birds. I will get to that later of what they eat. Um, well, we're on that now, but still they eat other birds, um, mid-sized birds, toucans, wood quails, armpandolas, ducks. They have been seen to eat a falcon. I don't know if that's a normal thing. I also couldn't find whether they eat other hawks or they eat owls or I'm not really sure about that, but either way, they're top tier. Not much is coming, but they eat a lot of different stuff. They also eat small mammals. They eat reptiles. They eat amphibians. They have seen, been seen to eat toads. Um, really just like a lot of hawks and eagles, they're soaring, they're soaring, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo. They see their prey, they swoop down, they grab it, they take it and eat it wherever they want to eat it or however they eat it. Um, but that's kind of their hunting style. They are very, um, they're, they're divers. They swoop and dive. When they see something, they swoop, there it is, and they dive and get it and eat. All right. So, um, that's just kind of how they do it. Uh, the lifespan, this is where I had inconsistencies on facts. Um, a lot of places I could not find the lifespan. They are studied a little bit in the zoo, but, um, in captivity, zoo captivity, but in the wild, I guess it said anywhere, one thing said 20 years, another thing says 45 years in captivity, then they said 30 years in the wild. So on the safe side, I'm just going to say between 20 and 45 years. Do I know for sure? No. Do a lot of scientists know for sure? No. We, if you are interested in this animal, maybe you can find out more, maybe in the future, there'll be more research, but who knows? That's what I found. As far as behavior, they are aerial hunters. They fly in the air, they hunt in the air and they maneuver and soar in the air most of the day. They also take frequent short breaks on branches, sometimes among the leaves and everything and tall trees, but for the most part, they spend most of their time in the air, whether that's relaxing in the air, whether that's flying in the air, whether that's chilling and mating in the air, they're in the air a lot of the time. Now, as far as mating, this was another area that I just could not find enough on. As far as a little bit about their vocals, as far as behavior, the main thing is saying they don't make as much sound in the air as they do on the trees, that they have a higher pitched squeal and the babies have a smaller pitch call in a way, but either way, yeah, not a lot was found on their mating. What I did find is that their nests are very big, they're cup shaped and they're built with large sticks and twigs and it's usually at the top of the trees in the rainforest. And then also another thing I found, a clutch, which is how many eggs they lay when they're ready to lay eggs. This was another inconsistency. Some sites said they lay two eggs and each time they lay eggs. Another one said they only lay usually one egg per this time. What was pretty consistent between different sites and books and stuff is that the eggs are creamy white, where they have dark brown or gray and lilac or light brown spots, pretty little speckled eggs. But other than that, not much has been found about the mating patterns, about how long until the bird is kicked out the nest. But not much is known about that. Not much is known about how long after incubation do they hold it. One site I did find, it said 40 to 48 days. I'm not 100% sure how accurate that is, so don't hold me to it, but that's what I found. Other than that, yeah, it was not really much information there at all. Like I guess because they're so high in the trees, they fly most of the time, they're hard to track. They don't stay in one place long. So maybe that's part of the reason. So moving on, like I said, they are top tier birds. They're top tier species. They don't really have predators because with such a big bird, they're killing so much. They're in the air and there's not much that can get to them. But like most species, the main predators is humans. Unfortunately, humans, mostly because of habitat loss, destroying that rainforest, destroying habitats, they don't have anywhere to perch or put their eggs. They're not going to have anywhere to keep their species going. Also, these birds are kind of known as umbrella species. So what I mean by that is by us protecting them and reaching out and helping them stay alive, we're protecting a lot of species. Of course, we're not protecting all the species that they're eating, but it's keeping the whole food chain thing going. They also have such a big wingspan. I guess if you kind of say umbrellas, like protect you from the rain, they're protecting the lower end by caring about their rainforest or caring about all the animals that live in there. I guess that's kind of where I'm going. That pushes me towards the conservation status. This was another inconsistent thing because a lot of places said least concern, but then some websites said they are kind of endangered in Southern Mexico and Central America, but they're kind of rare in other countries like Panama, I believe. So I'm not really sure if they're endangered or least concern because I was getting mixed reviews on that one. Can they be both? I'm not sure. But I guess the other thing, again, it's hard for them to be studied. A lot of people have not studied them more. So it's hard for scientists to say if they're endangered or if they're around without being able to get a lot of information or study this bird. So yeah, unfortunately, that's kind of how that went. Finally, we are to the end and thank you for sticking with me on the last episode of the year, the fun facts. Now, I'm gonna be honest. I don't have a whole lot of like exciting fun facts like I did for all the other animals because it is a rare bird, but I got something. I ain't gonna leave y'all hanging. I got you. First of all, they do not migrate because they're used to their hot and humid climate. They don't gotta leave. They're good at where they are. That's pretty much it. A lot of birds, if you don't know anything about birds or you're unfamiliar with birds, a lot of birds do usually migrate in the states. A lot of them migrate south in the winter when it starts to get cold. I'm not an ornithologist. I don't specialize in studying birds. I cannot really tell you if there's another reason they migrate except for escaping the weather change. I know sometimes natural disasters, animals leave. But yeah, if you know, let me know or Instagram message me if you know more about birds, about maybe other reasons animals leave so I can mention it in the future or not animals, birds specifically leave. But yeah, that's my first fact. Second fact, which I've said multiple times, I don't know if this is a fun fact, but in case you didn't hear it, they are rare. They're hard to observe. They're up in the top, top, top, top, top of the trees. Hard to see. Of course, people have their binoculars and these cool expensive cameras, but when they don't stay that long, they're hiding between branches or in their nest. It's kind of hard to see what they're doing. Hence, the lack of information. And finally, this I thought was pretty dope, but I wish there was more information on it. There has been cases where this Eagle has killed monkeys. This has been observed. No one knows why though. No one knows if the monkey started or if the Eagle Hawk said, not give you bucks. I don't know. I'm not really sure, but it has been observed. The funny thing about it is obviously it wasn't for food because they didn't eat the monkey. They killed the monkey, but I guess they left it, but they didn't actually consume it. So I don't know what was the cause of that fight. I don't know if it's a reason. Maybe they disturbed them or just because they felt like it. I don't, I'm not really sure, but it's been observed a few times, but no one knows the reason as to why the monkey was killed or why the Hawk went after it. Maybe it was just those specific Hawks. Maybe they had a problem. I don't know. But anyway, that's my three fun facts that I have for you. I'm sorry that I do not have more, but I wanted to give y'all a pretty aesthetically pleasing animal to look up to settle on your mind for the end of the year. Be like a black and white Hawk Eagle. Thor, enjoy the time you have. Enjoy your family. Happy holidays, everyone. If you celebrate Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year's, or whatever other holidays out there, I wish you the best. Let's have a great year. And I want to say thank you for being here. See you in 2023. Oh, and before I forget, follow my wildlife wonders podcast page on Instagram, wildlife wonders podcast, all one word. Appreciate it. Bye. Bye.