Birds of Prey: Haast's Eagle

Haast's Eagle Monsters of the Past Card 98 front

Haast's Eagle Monsters of the Past Card 98 back

The extinct Haast's Eagle is currently considered to be the largest eagle to have ever lived and so has led a sensational afterlife as in the Monsters of the Past trading cards above. 

Haast's Eagle is named for Julius von Haast, the German geologist and explorer who was the first  curator of the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand.  He studied the bones of this giant bird and named it Harpagornis Moorei in honor of his friend and benefactor P. H. Moore of Glenmark, New Zealand where the bones were found.

His interesting article on the Harpagornis Moorei from 1871 can be found in the Internet Archives: 

Transactions and proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, Volume 4 - page 192

The Cenozoic Life Blogspot has an excellent page on Haast's Eagle including the size comparison below:

It could be found only on the South Island of New Zealand and is believed to have become extinct around 1400 AD due to the arrival of humans on the island and their hunting to extinction of Haast's Eagle's primary prey, the Moa, a large flightless bird:

Giant Moa Monsters of the Past Card 85 front

Giant Moa Monsters of the Past Card 85 back

The Cenozoic Life Blogspot also has an excellent page about the South Island Giant Moa including the following size comparison of man, moa and Haast's eagle:

New Zealand Geographic provides this image of the Haast's eagle attacking a giant moa:

Illustration by Colin Edgerley

Many scientists believe that the size of this eagle was due to an evolutionary process called Island Giganticism which is also considered responsible for the huge Komodo Dragon lizard.

 The Prehistoric Wildlife site has a good size comparison between Haast's Eagle, the modern day Swamp Harrier and Eyles' Harrier, another extinct New Zealand raptor that is also considered to be the result of island giganticism:

      

 Discovery Science:  The Haast's Eagle

Haast's Eagle was included in New Zealand's Bird of the Week Series:

New Zealand Birds Online has an excellent page about the Haast's Eagle:

Haast's eagle. Haast’s eagle (Harpagornis moorei). Image 2006-0010-1/37 from the series 'Extinct birds of New Zealand'. Masterton. Image © Purchased 2006. © Te Papa by Paul Martinson See Te Papa website

Model maker Jake Yocum and curator vertebrates Alan Tennyson explain the science and process that went into recreating a full-size model of the huge extinct Haast’s eagle, pouākai.  It will feature at the Museum of New Zealand in the new exhibition, Te Taiao | Nature. . 

 New Exhibition Information

 

Special thanks to Mark Berge for suggesting I add the Haast's Eagle to my Birds of Prey series.  I was only going to do living birds, but the Haast's Eagle was just too fascinating to resist!