One of the reasons we chose this itinerary was because of the excellent chance it gave us for seeing a Harpy Eagle. The Imataca Forest Reserve has upwards of 60 pairs within its 3,000,000 acres. Because the reserve is selectively logged, the locals and the scientists who study the raptors generally know where a few nests are at any given time, and they typically designate one as the one for the tourists to visit. Typically, you see an older chick that is still being fed by the parents, but you would be unusually lucky to see one of the adults. Even if you do, you would usually only enjoy a brief visit to drop off food. Well, I think we shattered all the luck meters on this one, as you can see from the photos below. Not only was an adult at the nest the entire time (2+ hours), but she called constantly, flew around, worked on the nest, and generally put on an amazing show. When you include the perfect light, and then the full rainbow behind the tree, it was magical.
Nice job on Photos. Our group too was lucky. Good ol' Javier always delivers the goods. On 21/Feb 2009 we had an 16-18-mo. old juv. bird perched on some poor campesinos farm called Biscaya site. Within two minutes of setting the scope on the perched youngster, the male flew across in front of us. A few minutes later, the Juv. flew off to meet the male who probably had food for it. After an 30 mins. we departed the site and stopped along the road out about 2 Kms away from the farm where the Juv. was to scope a pair of Red-billed toucans. Suddenly Javier grunted out "harpia, harpia". There about 300 meters away was the female perched in a leaf-less tree for all to see. Not as great as your sighting, but I'll take it. Can you tell me what the name of your site was called? No matter how one stacks it up. Being able to see one of the beasts as an adult is something none of us could ever forget.