Comments about PBS NATURE: Jungle Eagle Blu-ray:

Outstanding work was done by Fergus Beeley and his assistants in creating this amazing documentary of South America's harpy eagle. Finding a harpy eagle nest with a young eaglet and, of course, vigilant parents in Venezuela's Orinoco River Jungle, the film crew, not content to only photograph the developing chick from a platform in a nearby tree, put themselves in harm's way by scaling to the top of the very tree of the eagle nest so that a special, remote camera can be placed there. This enables the crew to look down on all of the nest activities.This additional camera placement is remarkable in view of the fact that the harpy eagles have huge talons that are used to capture and kill monkeys, a major component of their diet. In order to protect themselves during this camera placement activity, the crew members undertaking the task protect their bodies from eagle attack by donning police riot gear.The more than one year development of the chick from a fluffy hatchling to a beggining flyer, decked out in undeniably regal plumage, is amazing. We see monkey kills being flown to the nest and then fed to the eaglet. Especially intriguing is the suggestion that the reason the parents held off from hunting and killing any of the monkeys close to the nest may be that they were saving these easier food opportunities for purposes of later training the young eagle in the art of hunting.Do not miss this excellent Nature documentary.