The harpy eagle is considered the largest and most powerful raptor in the Amazon Rainforest.
It is a forest-dwelling eagle of Central and South America, with especially large talons and strong legs suited to seizing arboreal prey. Sloths and monkeys are among the animals recorded in its diet.
Harpy eagles usually hunt from the forest canopy, where their broad wings and relatively short tails help them maneuver between trees. They build large nests high in emergent trees and typically raise young slowly.
The species is not the world’s largest eagle by every measurement, because comparisons can use body mass, length or wingspan. Nevertheless, it is widely recognized as the dominant large forest eagle of the Neotropics and a symbol of intact rainforest.