The humble little Maya is more deserving to be the national bird than the lofty Philippine Eagle.

Most of us Pinoys probably felt good when Fidel Ramos changed the national bird from the lowly Maya to the regal Philippine Eagle. Not exactly renowned for either brawn or brain, many Pinoys probably thought having the diminutive Maya for a national bird was carrying humility a tad too far.

But the Philippine Eagle! Now, here was one regal bird which should be the match if not the better of other avian icons such as the American bald eagle of the US of A.

Ramos said the Philippine Eagle more accurately reflects the nobility and majesty of the Filipino spirit with its great size, soaring flight and magnificent looks crowned by a head of feathers which makes it one really regal dude.

Sadly though, it is also an icon of what is wrong with the Philippines. There are but a few eagles left in increasingly fewer places in Mindanao due to the encroachments on its habitats made by man, specially those of the scorched earth and chainsaw-wielding kinds.

In contrast, the resilient Maya continues to thrive inspite of the depredations on its traditional habitats wrought by the all-conquering destroyer: man.

Most farmers see the little birds as pests, though it is more the farmer and the kainginero, and not the bird, who are invaders in the Maya’s traditional habitats with their plantations and kaingins.

It is nature’s way of cutting man down to size that the Mayas periodically raid the ripening fields of rice grains that farmers and kaingineros impertinently sow in lands that are rightfully the domain of the little birds.

Sounds familiar? Hmmmm....

It is also the tiny Maya who is closer to the nobility of the Filipino spirit than the Philippine Eagle. Small in stature, sociable by nature, and resilient to the changes man and nature have wrought on its environment, it is an ideal that the new generation of Filipinos can look up to as the national bird, rather than the endangered Philippine Eagle which is a more appropriate role model for the country’s elite, needing a disproportionately wide stand of forest to sustain a very small population, and preying on the smaller rodents and birds for its sustenance.

Unlike the Philippine Eagle, the Maya is a survivor, and does not need the full might of the World Wildlife Fund and the questionable support of the Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to ensure the sustainability of its simple lifestyle. It can survive on its own, like the greater mass of the hoi polloi, enduring grinding poverty, cowering under the talons of greater Raptors higher up the social totem pole, cheerfully taking the crumbs of grace fate throws its way, like the ripening stalks of rice grains in paddies that invaders have sowed on what used to be its home and playground.

In this centennial year of the Philippine’s Independence, let’s make ourselves heard and bring back the Maya as the national bird.

It may be small and not as impressive-looking as the Haribon, but it is this very attribute which makes it possible for the Maya to survive within its means in whatever environment it is faced with.

Truly a reflection of the values and traits that the newer generationd of Filipinos would need to face the emerging world order in the new millennium.