under the watchful eye of the turkey eagle

I finally managed to catch a photograph of an old acquaintance. Since my earliest memories of wandering around fields, meadows, and forests, I have almost always chanced to meet my curious friend.


Since we began to spend time at Chakha'asi, the place between Xaibe and Xcanluum, we have never failed to see the familiar Turkey Eagle. He is a great soaring eagle, but like a turkey, he doesn't have any feathers on his head. He wheels around and flies past us, to greet us or make sure we are ok, or something, then he flies away. Sometimes he returns every few hours to check if we are still ok.

It has become our habit for one or another of us to wave at the turkey eagle, cheerfully tell him we are ok, and thank him for checking on us.

Several Belizeans have noticed this behavior and when questioned about it we point to the turkey eagle. They smile and prepare to tell us what he is, but they are polite enough to wait until we tell them about how he checks up on us when we are out in the bush and how we think if we ever have a serious problem in the bush he will come find us. Then they are too polite to say anything more about the turkey eagle, probably thinking we understand the whole thing more or less correctly anyway.