New Zealand is a new land of forgotten secrets. Deep within the wilds of New Zealand there are tales that most ignore, that most deny. Some tales are druken yarns, some urban myths, some just plain lies. But there are some that remain mysteries to this day, ignored out of hand by too many. Tales of beasts in the unexplored countryside, that grow more and more elusive, and of incredible phenomenom that grows rarer and rarer...

Mysterious New Zealand The Giant Eagle


Haast's Eagle (Harpagornis moorei), was a massive, now extinct eagle that once lived on the South Island of New Zealand. Also known as the Harpagornis Eagle, it was the largest eagle to have ever lived.

Female Haast's Eagles weighed 10 to 15 kg (22 to 33 lb), and males weighed 9 to 10 kg (20 to 22 lb). They had a wingspan of roughly 2.6 to 3 m (8 to 10 ft) at most, which was short for a bird of the eagle's weight (the largest Golden Eagles and Steller's Sea Eagles may have a wingspan of almost the same length), but aided them when hunting in the dense forests of New Zealand.

300 years ago, however, the Haasts Eagle was officially extinct.


Or is it?

When european explorers returned from exploring New Zealand, they told tales of a bird so collosal it emitted a roar like that of a lion. The roarss were reported from Stewart Island as recently as 1961 and, because the animal making these nocturnal sounds was never seen, the legend of the giant eagle living on began to spread. Other suggested candidates are the New Zealand snipe, and the tui which can both imitate loud booming sounds. Many who heard the roars however, maintined to their deathbeds that what they heard was a beast that today remains a mystery, and certainly not any of the well known local bird life.

Julius Von Haast himself, discoverer of Haasts Eagle and one of the first explorers of New Zealand, a scientific though open minded man, actually saw what he thought was a giant eagle gliding through thin mist in the Canterbury mountains, and a large bird that walked into his tent one night was also suggested to be a giant eagle, though Haast believed it to be in fact a small Moa, but without evidence for either of these events, Haasts kept them quite secret in fear of ridicule from his scientific peers.

A noted explorer, Charles Douglas, claims in his journals that he had an encounter with two raptors of immense size in Landsborough River valley (1870s), and shot and ate them. Douglas' observations on wildlife are generally trustworthy; a more probable explanation, given that the alleged three-metre wingspan of Douglas' birds is unlikely to have been more than a rough estimate, is that the birds were Eyles' Harriers. Many important features Douglas describes do not match that of the latter bird however, and precisely match the former.

In 1860 a young man traverrsing thick bush in the Canterbury Ranges was startled by the appearence of what he described as "a behemoth of a bird" which shaded him with its huge shadow. When he reached town he told his tale, and was suprised to hear that many others had experienced much the same thing.

I got a story from an elderly priest (Yes, a priest) who told me that in the 1950's he lived in Otago, and would sometimes witness massive birds flying in the canopy. He was told by his teacher that the birds were predatory and should be avoided.

Miss Janet McCarthy, a school teacher, was exploring caves on Mount Aspiring, when she found herself cornered by a very big bird which she estimated had a 3 metre wingspan, and was most similar to a hawk of all the birds she had ever seen. The bird surveyed her for a moment, then flew off. As it flew away, Miss Janet claimed to notice another, similarly sized bird only a few metres from the other, which also flew away. It is interesting that she derscribed the birds as Hawk like, not eagle-like which would imply the Haasts bird. This may mean the bird was in fact a different species? If she overestimated the size of the animal, it may have been a remnant Eyles' Harrier, which is more hawk-like than the giant eagle.

In more recent years, fewer reports have emerged. During the summer of 1976 a group of tourist driving down the desert road noticed a giant bird with a truly incredible wingspan gliding across the dessert landscape. This report is likely a hoax, as Haasts Eagle had a relatively small wingspan in comparison to itsbody size and the desert was not its ideal choice of habitat.

In the same area as Charles Douglas' encounter occured, two woman tramping were amazed at the appearence of a very large bird standing, wings tucked in, beisde a dead ram. The woman were terrified and nearly fainted when the bird opened its wings out to 3 metres and flew away. This sighting was reported in 1991.

Early this year my father told me about an associate in a mountainous regoin down in the south island who claimed to see two giant birds land in the snow. He said he thought I'd be interested.

In addition to the occasional sightings, Earl Jean, an ornithologist, supposedly came into possesion of an intact 3 metre wing of a bird shot down over Mount Aspiring in 1897. He decided it was that of the Haasts Eagle and began planning an expedition to find a living specimen, but died before the project was completed. I can find no information as to what became of the wing.

As an interesting final note, in the parts of the South Island where giant birds have been sighted there is an slightly higher than normal amount of livestock reported missing from farms...

If the wings are proportionately shorter than that of other eagles, than maybe the Haast was an airborne 'ambush predator'. Instead of soaring high above and flapping occasionally, , which would be difficult for a super-sized bird with wings the size of a modern eagle, maybe it just sat on a high vantage point, and flapped toward the nearest prey animal.

Sounds funny, but that's in sync with what I've read about its flight characteristics.

Sounds quite odd for a bird, but yes I would assume so.

Thanks undead,

That would be awesome if those birds are still alive. Can you imagine having one swoop down out of the trees at you? I have always wanted to visit New Zealand sound like an interesting place. Keep the stories coming.

Definitely one of the more probable cryptids

No probs my friend.

It would be extremely terrifying I imagine, knowing that in a minute you were about to be torn about by a giant birds beak and talons, but I guess it would be awesome .. in a... cosmic sense?

Oh dude you gotta come down here, its so cool. The South Island is a GORGEOUS land, and full of stunning cryptids too. Fiordland is so vast and unexplored all you need to do is stray a few steps from the track and low and behold that little critter in front of you is a completely unknown species! Its awesome man, and so beautiful!



Lol, do I sense sarcasm?

A little OT, but assault by hedgehog? Link

Anyway Stewart Island was rather sparsely (human) populated when I was living in Invercargill back in the early 80s, so the possibility of isolated pockets of populations of previously thought to be extinct animals is definitely plausible.

However the reports in the South Island... Hmmm, dunno. The Maori don't seem to have any stories of it's lingering existence after the arrival of the Europeans...
But like you say, the Fiordlands are rather inaccessable in some places.

As for some of the sightings of eagles with large wingspans, perhaps the 'escaped specimans' theory of cryptozoology might hold some relevance.
I'm thinking of the wedgetail eagle here. If the 'success' of one the Australian Army's Cavalry regiments has had training its mascot is anything to go by, then the wedgie might have been a bird that southern hemisphere harriers/falconers may have considered as a viable alternative to Northern Hemisphere birds...

Link to Wiki

Interesting thing is, Stewart Island is hardly even human inhabited at present. There only less than 500 people permenantly situated on the island, and non permenants (Wildlife researchers etc) are only about 60 a year. There are some pretty eiree cryptid stories from down there. Haasts Eagle in my opinion though, is too big to live on today. Sorry peepz but I suspect that it did live on early in the 19th or maybe even 20th centuries.

You know ive allways been fascinated by the fact that New Zealand had not one but two species of giant bird
I know that the moari have some awesome legends about them

Another excellent thread from Undeadskeptic. Kudos! Little known fact: The favorite food of the Haast's eagle was gigantic Vietnamese spiders.

kind of resembles the "thunderbirds" of native american mythology.

Not at all.It is one of the most probable cryptids.I mean,at least we know it used to exist,unlike bigfoot,nessie,or chupacabra.The possibility of a small Haasts Eagle population still living in the unexplored(or at least unmonitored) mountains of NZ is much more plausible then any of the other cryptids i know.

Thank you my friend. Another little bit of trivia: Australian Allosaurs are its main predators.

Some have suggested that Thunderbirds are remnant Haasts Eagles but why would they migrate to North America, and without leaving a trace of evidence?



Very true, I have been up Mount Aspiring myself (Where Moa have occasionally been spotted) and I believe many cryptids could live up there undiscovered for ages.