santuario de aguila

Once again, I was amazed by the birds of prey that call the Centre for Philippine Raptors their home. On March 31, I was counting on my lucky stars to at least get a glimpse of the mighty Philippine eagle.

In the centre, a guide was explaining how the different raptors are being released into the wild. My eyes were suddenly drawn to a violent flapping of wings behind the guide. It was a serpent eagle, and I thought it had escaped from its cage. The guide said that the centre has released the bird into the wild, but it would always go back there… perhaps as if it had a homing beacon atop of its head making it go back.

Then there was a pair of eagles, one’s a white-bellied sea eagle. I forgot what the other one was… but it had fluffier feathers. According to the guide, it’s not found in the Philippines. Instead, it thrives in temperate regions. These two birds caught my eye because both were sitting in the middle of a pond, untied, and without a cage! It turned out that these two were too injured to even cross the pond. They have to rely on their caretakers for food and water. Hence, they need not be restrained.

Sitting quietly on a perch right by the caretakers’ office was another raptor. If the guard did not tell me that it was there, I would never have noticed it… and it could have pecked the wits out of me in fright! Apparently, the bird was being trained for a flight show and was getting ready.

Finally, I noticed a feather held by our friendly guide. I was about to ask him if I could have it when he identified it as a juvenile Philippine eagle’s feather. I looked around and found no Philippine eagles flapping about… they were in a cage away from public viewing. To be caught with a feather like that in one’s possession is just like signing a death wish because anyone caught with a feather would be fined a whopping P5,000,000! I stopped in my tracks and bit my tongue. Now I now what that amount of money looked like.

I guess my lucky stars did allow me to see a glimpse of the elusive Philippine eagle… not the whole animal though.

Live to fight another day then.