Philippine Eagle ("Dakila") - Female Lays One Egg Every 2 Years
maryan54 > albums > Philippine Eagle Center, Davao
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(DSC02066) Philippine Eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi): Incubation, nestling and post-fledgling - For a complete breeding cycle, the females lay only a single egg. But if an egg failed to hatch or the chick died early during the first year, the eagles normally nest the following year. As soon as an egg is laid, the female would start incubating. Consequently, breeding behavior stops but sometimes it may still happen a few days after the egg is laid. It is believed that this is meant to ensure that a new egg gets laid just in case the egg under incubation failed. Incubation lasts 58 to 68 days. Both the male and the female incubate the egg but the female has a greater share of the daytime, and apparently does all of nighttime, incubation. The female spent about two thirds of the incubation up to the early nestling period. After which, both hunt and feed the growing eaglet until independence. In one nest observed, the adults take turn brooding the young and covering it from the sun and the rain. But this ceased when the chick was left on its own in the nest when it was seven weeks old and thereafter. Once the egg is hatched, the eaglet will stay in the nest or about 5.5 months. The parents will take care of it for about 17 months until it leaves its parents territory in search of a vacant habitat. Recent detailed observation gave revelations about play behavior in a juvenile Philippine Eagle. It was seen observing tree cavities and grasping the rim of knotholes using its tail as props and wing for balance while poking its head into the cavity. The young eagle also hangs itself upside down perhaps as an exercise in balance and was also seen doing mock attacks of inanimate objects on the ground or among tree crowns. All of these were done in the absence of the parents, which indicate that juveniles seem to learn hunting without parental intervention. (Taken from http://www.philippineeagle.org/index?pag eval=thephileagle)
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