The maximum reported weight is surpassed by two other eagles (the harpy and Steller's sea eagles) and the wings are shorter than large eagles of open country (such as the white-tailed eagle, Steller's sea eagle, martial eagle, or wedge-tailed eagle), but are quite broad. The Philippine eagle has a wingspan of 184 to 220 cm (6 ft 0 in to 7 ft 3 in) and a wing chord length of 57.4–61.4 cm (22.6–24.2 in). One male (age not specified) was found to weigh 4.04 kg (8.9 lb). For adult Philippine eagles, the complete weight range has been reported as 4.7 to 8.0 kg (10.4 to 17.6 lb), while others have found the average was somewhat lower than the above range would indicate, at 4.5 kg (9.9 lb) for males and 6.0 kg (13.2 lb) for females. In many of the other large eagle species, the size difference between adult females and males can exceed 20%. The level of sexual dimorphism in size is not certain, but the male is believed to be typically about 10% smaller than the female, and this is supported by the average length provided for males and females in one source. The longest Philippine eagle reported anywhere and the longest eagle outside of the extinct Haast's eagle is a specimen from Field Museum of Natural History with a length of 112 cm (3 ft 8 in), but it had been kept in captivity so may not represent the wild individuals due to differences in the food availability. Based on the latter measurements, this makes it the longest extant species of eagle, as the average for the female equals the maximum reported for the harpy eagle and Steller's sea eagle. The Philippine eagle is typically reported as measuring 86–102 cm (2 ft 10 in – 3 ft 4 in) in total length, but a survey of several specimens from some of the largest natural history collections in the world found the average was 95 cm (3 ft 1 in) for males and 105 cm (3 ft 5 in) for females. Juveniles are similar to adults except their upperpart feathers have pale fringes. The heavy legs are yellow, with large, powerful, dark claws, and the prominent, large, high-arched, deep beak is a bluish-gray. The back of the Philippine eagle is dark brown, while the underside and underwings are white. The eagle has a dark face and a creamy-brown nape and crown. The Philippine eagle's nape is adorned with long, brown feathers that form a shaggy, manelike crest. The species has subsequently been placed in the subfamily Circaetinae. The species was included in the subfamily Harpiinae until a 2005 study of DNA sequences which identified them as not members of the group, finding instead that the nearest relatives are Snake eagles (Circaetinae), such as the bateleur. Evolutionary history Ī study of the skeletal features in 1919 led to the suggestion that the nearest relative was the Harpy eagle. Use of the name "Philippine eagle" in preference of "monkey-eating eagle" was the subject of an official government proclamation by then Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos in 1978. It has numerous names in the many Philippine languages, including ágila ("eagle"), háribon (from haring ibón, "king bird"), and banog ("kite"). Īpart from Philippine eagle and monkey-eating eagle, it has also been called the great Philippine eagle. This species has no recognized subspecies. This, coupled with the fact that the same name applied to the African Crowned eagle and the Central and South American Harpy eagle, resulted in a presidential proclamation to change its name to Philippine eagle in 1978, and in 1995 was declared a national emblem. Later studies revealed, however, that the alleged monkey-eating eagle also ate other animals, such as colugos, large snakes, monitor lizards, and even large birds, such as Hornbills. The species name commemorates Jeffery Whitehead, the father of John Whitehead. Upon its scientific discovery, the Philippine eagle was first called the monkey-eating eagle because of reports from natives of Bonga, Samar, where the species was first discovered, that it preyed exclusively on monkeys from these reports it gained its generic name, from the Greek pithecus (πίθηκος) ("ape or monkey") and phagus (-φάγος) ("eater of"). The skin of the bird was sent to William Robert Ogilvie-Grant in London in 1896, who initially showed it off in a local restaurant and described the species a few weeks later. The first European to study the species was the English explorer and naturalist John Whitehead in 1896, who observed the bird and whose servant, Juan, collected the first specimen a few weeks later.
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