Ethno-ornithological notes and neglected references on the Harpy Eagle Harpia harpyja in western Venezuela

Abstract

Harpy Eagle Harpia harpyja has been documented only recently (2004) in the Lake Maracaibo basin of western Venezuela, specifically in the central Sierra de Perijá, at 1,100 m. Observations in the southern plains of the basin are reported from heretofore neglected sources published in 1599, 1889 and 1893. Two overlooked photographs of dead birds dating from 1947–51 (Perijá Mountains) and 1959 (Santa Bárbara del Zulia) are reproduced. Several other records are established (in 1974, the 1980s, 1994/95, 2002 and 2006), based on empirical observations and material evidence collected by anthropologists who have visited the still heavily forested area inhabited by the Barí people since the early 1960s. Circumstantial evidence of the use of Harpy Eagle bones and feathers by the indigenous Barí provides additional ethno-ornithological information. Although Harpy Eagle is currently categorised as Vulnerable in Venezuela, the cumulative historical evidence coupled with Species Distribution Modelling analysis predictions of suitable habitat locally available to the species suggests it might still be frequent in the western and southern Lake Maracaibo basin, where considerable expanses of tropical forest are conserved within four major protected areas and an indigenous reserve.