Eagles Introduction Their fierce portraits stare out from cave paintings crafted by long-forgotten S tone Age masters.

Their hooked beaks and deadly claws have adorned flags that le d armies from Rome to Germany into battle. The spot on which one landed dictated to the ancient Aztecs the place where they were to build a city. Humans have long revered eagles. Eagles. For centuries, these seemingly larger-than-life birds have fascinated an d inspired us. We venerate them as living symbols of power, freedom, and transcendence. In some religions, high-soaring eagles are believed to touch the face of God. Legend ho lds that Mexico s Aztecs so revered the birds that they built Tenochtitlan, their capital, at the spot where an eagle perched on a cactus. Behind this extraordinary reverence, however, is the even more remarkable story of how Earth s 59 species of eagles live their high-flying lives. That story is to ld in the NATURE program Eagles, which gives a rare bird s-eye-view of these maste rs of the sky. Eagles documents the stunning acrobatics and the ferocious huntin g skills that have made these birds the nobility of feathered society, from the plains of Africa and the rivers of Alaska to the forests of the Philippines and the seas off Japan. When eagles come to mind, people commonly imagine some enormous hunter soaring a bove wide-open spaces on outsized wings. Indeed, eagles are among the world s larg est birds of prey. The largest, including the Harpy Eagle and the Philippine Eag le, can weigh more than 20 pounds and have wings that spread eight feet across. Using their massive, sharp talons, these giants can kill and carry off prey as l arge as deer and monkeys. But not all eagles fit this stereotype: some are just small balls of feathers co ntent to flap short distances, dining on insects or even fruit. The Crested Serp ent Eagle, for instance, is no bigger than a pigeon and spends its days walking and climbing through its African forest home in search of snakes. And the Africa n Vulturine Fish-Eagle is primarily a vegetarian, eschewing meat in favor of ric h oil palm fruits. Overall, scientists recognize four groups of eagles: The world s 12 species of serp ent eagles (also called snake-eagles ) typically perch on trees and feed on snakes, frogs, and lizards. The six buzzard-like eagles are forest-dwelling giants, such as the Harpy and Philippine eagles, and prey on large mammals like deer. Eagles glide for hours at a time. The thirty booted eagles, so-called because feathers grow down the legs and cover the toes, include the widest-ranging eagle of them all: the Golden Eagle, which is found around the world and has learned to feast on an assortment of prey. In Greece, Golden Eagles even eat turtles, dropping them from great heights onto ro cks to break open their armored shells. The eleven sea eagles, which include Ame rica s beloved Bald Eagle, tend to specialize in eating fish and water birds some even hunt flamingoes and poisonous sea snakes. Biologists also recognize another significant difference among eagles: some are built to hunt in the tight confines of a forest, while others are designed to so ar high above open plains and water with nary a wing flap.

The forest eagles, such as the Crested Serpent Eagle, have short wings and long tails that enable them to twist and turn easily an advantage when chasing prey a t high speed through tree trunks and branches. In contrast, soaring eagles, such as the Golden Eagle and Africa s Bateleur Eagle, have short, wide tails and broad , long wings that enable them to glide effortlessly on rising air currents. Ther e is a tradeoff, however: soaring eagles tend to be poor flyers, making every ta keoff and landing an adventure! As a result, soaring eagles often hunt from high perches, where they can literally fall into the air and swoop down on unsuspectin g fish and mammals. Still, soaring provides an efficient means of covering groun d a necessity for eagles living in areas where food may be scarce. Golden eagles nesting in Wyoming, for instance, often have foraging areas that cover 100 squa re miles. To defend these territories and attract a mate, soaring eagles put on spectacula r aerial displays. The airshows include death-defying swoops and seemingly suici dal dogfights undertaken against both rivals and potential partners that involve locking talons with the other bird and free-falling in a death spiral. The grea t American poet Walt Whitman, witnessing one of these breathtaking displays by B ald Eagles, described it as a living, fierce, gyrating wheel,/ four beating wings , two beaks, a swirling mass tight grappling,/ in tumbling turning clustering lo ops, straight downward falling. Sometimes, the dogfights end only when the great birds crash into a treetop or, in rare instances, one dies from hitting the grou nd. Eagles are known for their sharp vision. Usually, however, eagle eyes are too keen for the birds to fly blindly into dang er. In fact, eagles vision is among the sharpest of any animal. Wedge-tailed Eagl es, for instance, can see twice as far as people. Studies suggest that some eagl es can spot an animal the size of a rabbit up to two miles away. In part, eagles have excellent vision because their eyes, which are very large i n proportion to their heads, are densely packed with sensory cells. While humans typically have 200,000 light-sensitive cells per square millimeter of retina, e agles may have 1 million five times more. Similarly, while humans have only one fovea, a funnel-shaped part of the retina where vision is sharpest, eagles have two. Finally, where people see just three basic colors, eagles see five, enablin g them to pick out even well-camouflaged prey. Unfortunately, even such remarkable traits have not protected eagles from harm. Around the world, many eagle populations are dwindling as a result of habitat de struction, hunting, and pollution. But conservation efforts are helping some spe cies. In the U.S., for instance, the Bald Eagle has made a dramatic comeback ove r the last few decades. And on the island of Madagascar, the dramatic 1993 redis covery of the Madagascar Serpent Eagle has raised hopes that its population also can be protected and restored.