Manaul

In Tagalog accounts Bathala sends a tigmamanukan omen bird named Manaul to peck a bamboo; when Manaul pecks it the bamboo splits and releases the first man (Malakas) and woman (Maganda). In Bisaya traditions Manaul is a king who guided destinies and who, after instigating war between earth and sky, clawed rocks from the ocean and threw them to form islands. In Mangyan and some Negrito versions Manaul is a wrathful king imprisoned by Tubluck Lawi, who escapes, revolts against gods and spirits, and is punished by Kaptan; Kaptan throws rocks that miss Manaul and become islands where Manaul later rests.

Sources describe Manaul variably as a bird (the Manaul bird) and as a kingly or personified figure; no consistent detailed physical description (plumage, size, or anthropomorphic features) is given in the cited materials. Later common usage of the name also applies to large Philippine raptors (Philippine eagle, white-bellied sea eagle) but mythic texts do not equate Manaul with a specific modern species.

Manaul functions as an omen-bearing agent in Tagalog lore (its flight direction and pecking signal a labay or good omen), as a cosmogonic actor (pecking bamboo to release first humans; flinging or clawing rocks to create islands), and as a powerful/rebellious figure who can instigate conflict among cosmic powers and shape destinies (Bisaya tradition describes him as a king who guided destinies). In Mangyan variants Manaul's rebellion and punishment produce landscape-forming effects.