Documentary Review: Bird of Prey

"If we lose the Philippine eagle in the Philippines, the whole world loses.  It might be found here, but it is a property of the world."

If some ornithological genie were to offer me the chance to go anywhere in the world to see any one, single species of bird... well, first of all, I'd be a little irritated and baffled, because man, is that one specific genie.  After that, though, I'd make my decision pretty quickly.  I'd go to the Philippines - because it is there (and, with the recent exception of Jurong Bird Park in Singapore, only there) that you can see the bird that I consider the most magnificent of all raptors - the Philippine eagle.

I've never seen a live Philippine eagle.  I've never seen a taxidermy mount of one.  In fact, so rare is this bird that, it wasn't until a saw the documentary Bird of Prey: The Story of the Rarest Eagle on Earth that I ever saw footage of this species in the wild.  Also known as the Philippine monkey-eating eagle is one of the largest eagles in the world, rivaling the harpy eagle of South America and Steller's sea eagle of northeast Asia.   It is the apex predator of the Philippine rainforests, hunting monkeys, snakes, birds, civets, and flying lemurs.  It's shy, reclusive nature, natural rarity, and remote habitat have long made it a scientific mystery - it was not known to western science until 1896, and not filmed in the wild until 1977.

That 1977 footage was obtained by Neil Rettig, who is one of the cinematographers for Bird of Prey.  He offers the viewer great insight into the natural history of these birds, including footage of a young eaglet feeding in his nest.  Having filmed these extremely rare birds for decades, Rettig offers an intimate view of the lives of the eagles.  When he shows us a mated pair soaring together over the canopy in a synchronized flight and muses that they are celebrating the completion of a monumental task - the successful rearing of their young, I'm not inclined to brush him of as anthropomorphizing.  I believe him.

The story of the eagle isn't always a happy one - they are, after all, one of the rarest birds in the world.  The documentary talks about their decline, then takes us in the Filipino captive breeding program and rehabilitation program, which desperately tries to salvage what birds are left.   One of the more intimidating scenes was watching an imprinted, hand-reared bird try to copulate with its handler - friendly intentions or not, I would not like to see that beak and those talons come homing in on my face.  The caretakers share their triumphs in helping to coax the eagles back from the edge of extinction.  Still, they acknowledge their fears that a world may soon come where the only Philippine eagles are in zoos - and that would be a sadder, grayer world... though not as sad as one with no Philippine eagles at all

Early on in the program, a biologist ponders about how the Philippines lack so many of the charismatic big animals seen elsewhere in the region - no tigers, no rhinos, no orangutans.  They do, he later decides, have the Philippine eagle - and when it comes to making a wilderness feel magical, that certainly makes up for a lot

Bird of Prey: The Story of the Rarest Eagle on Earth, at Amazon.com