I just watched the second preview screening (4/16) of “Fly! Mountain Hawk-Eagle.” Thanks to the Taiwan Raptor Research Group for providing students with admission, allowing me to get a sneak peek at this precious documentary. Now that I’ve just finished watching the film, I want to promote it a bit, trying to convince friends who might find documentaries boring XD.
First, let’s talk about why we should care about raptors. Besides the superficial impressions of “eagles are cool, apex predators, TSG Hawks (a baseball team),” the presence of raptors also signifies that the current overall ecosystem is stable and safe. If you’ve studied junior high biology, you’d know that with each step up the food chain, energy decreases by about a tenth, so by the time it reaches raptors, perhaps only one-thousandth or less remains. If an environment can sustain raptors, allowing them to soar freely in the sky, it usually indicates that our current location is a place rich in energy and with balanced population development for various species.
Unlike the common problems faced by urban raptors (window collisions, traffic, poison, etc.), in this documentary, we can get a glimpse of the unique problems and phenomena encountered by the robust Mountain Hawk-Eagle in the mountain forests. At the beginning of the film, the keyword “frying pan” is mentioned. This is because indigenous people regard the Mountain Hawk-Eagle as the incarnation of ancestral spirits. If a Mountain Hawk-Eagle circles above a tribe, it signifies that the land is blessed by ancestral spirits. And the feathers shed by the Mountain Hawk-Eagle (literally “auspicious feathers”) are symbols of power and status. To obtain more Mountain Hawk-Eagle feathers, indigenous people climb trees to poach hawk-eagle chicks, and the frying pan is used to prevent the parent birds from attacking from behind.
The documentary mentions how indigenous people strike a balance between traditional rituals and ecological development, using a unique method. However, in the Taiwanese environment, the Mountain Hawk-Eagle also faces challenges such as habitat fragmentation, human poaching, natural environmental changes, or ecological shifts. This results in the resources required to raise a healthy adult Mountain Hawk-Eagle being much greater than imagined.
The documentary also shows the immense effort put in by researchers from Yilan or National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) to protect and conserve the Mountain Hawk-Eagle. Besides remote tracking, they also trek through mountains and streams to reach the hawk-eagles’ nests (usually in the highest canopy of the tallest trees on the steepest mountains). They chip and install digital cameras to track the hawk-eagles’ movements, understand their habits, and conduct related research. Along the way, they might encounter many wild animals, aka the hawk-eagles’ food. But it also reveals that the natural environment is not as simple as “predator vs. prey.” Although adult Mountain Hawk-Eagles can catch small mammals like masked palm civets and yellow-throated martens, they also have the potential to destroy juvenile hawk-eagles. Furthermore, we witness the growth process of Mountain Hawk-Eagles, the natural and man-made disasters they might encounter, and humanity’s reflection on how to balance economic development, cultural inheritance, and nature conservation.
I’m quite fond of eagles (raptors). Ever since I learned about the Taiwan Raptor Research Group in high school, my previous two computers both had stickers of Taiwanese raptors (Crested Goshawk and Osprey). Sometimes when I walk into the mountains, I encounter Crested Serpent Eagles or even Rufous-bellied Eagles (a bonus for forest ecology, I love forest ecology). Seeing them soar freely is always inspiring. I also visited the Yangmingshan base in 2024.
Therefore, through this period of attention, I’ve also come to understand the challenges of raptor conservation in Taiwan. Although raptors are cool, they aren’t commonly encountered, so when animal protection organizations are mentioned, raptors usually aren’t the first species that come to mind. However, ever since NPUST and the Raptor Research Group began promoting nest cam livestreams or roosting site photos online (featuring Black-winged Kites as an example https://shorturl.at/9TeDi), more and more people have started paying attention to the beauty, adorable clumsiness (?), and issues surrounding raptors.
“Fly! Mountain Hawk-Eagle” is directed by Liang Chieh-te, with music by Lim Giong, and narration by Wu Nien-jen. It brings the elegance and issues of Taiwanese raptors to the big screen. While ecological documentaries aren’t usually particularly eye-catching, if you’re willing to spend an hour and a half watching it, I believe you’ll gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for this elegant and magnificent creature, the Mountain Hawk-Eagle. In Director Liang’s previous film, “Fly, Kite, Fly,” the promotion of Black Kite issues successfully led to the creation of “Eagle Red Beans” (I’m not sure which came first, but they are certainly related), which are now sold at PX Mart. I hope that by raising awareness for this film, it will foster more wonderful collaborations.
Finally, I remember watching “Fly, Kite, Fly” in junior high, and the part that struck me most was this: they worked on Black Kite habitat protection and species restoration in Taiwan, tracking their numbers, which finally rose from 200-300 to 700-800 (this number just popped into my head, but it should be roughly correct). But when they went abroad for research, they found that Black Kites, which were hard to find in Taiwan, were as common as stray dogs overseas.
But why, then, should we still conserve Taiwan’s raptors? I’ve somewhat forgotten the film’s conclusion, but my conclusion is this: On this beautiful island of Taiwan, being able to see raptors, which signify a stable ecosystem, gliding in the sky, not only makes raptor enthusiasts and photographers happy, but also allows the entire ecosystem to achieve balance. Ultimately, this small island of Taiwan can also possess robust ecological resilience like a large nation, which would be truly wonderful. I know my starting point is a bit different, but that’s essentially what I mean.
A researcher in “Fly! Mountain Hawk-Eagle” said: “We hope that the Mountain Hawk-Eagle won’t become an animal only seen by ancestors in legends, like the Formosan clouded leopard or the leopard cat. We also hope that this film can show more people what this group dedicated to protecting the Mountain Hawk-Eagle is doing, and what they are striving for.” Highly recommended!
(I watched a public screening tour of “Invisible Taiwan” in August and still haven’t written a review; this reminds me I really need to finish it and write it up quickly lol)