Wedge-tailed Eagle

Wedge-tailed eagles are big birds.
They have big, sharp, hooked beaks.
They fly very high in the sky.
They hunt small animals.
They are Australian eagles.

Australia's largest bird of prey is the Wedge-tailed eagle, one of the largest eagles in the world.

The Wedge-tailed eagle is the faunal (animal) emblem of Australia's Northern Territory

Habitat and Distribution (where they are found)
Wedge-tailed eagles are found throughout mainland Australia, Tasmania and sometimes in southern New Guinea. They prefer forested areas and open country.

Appearance and Behaviours
Adult birds are a dark blackish brown colour, females being a bit lighter in colour than males. The young are a lighter brown with reddish brown heads and wings. Newly hatched chicks are covered in white fluffy feathers called down, but feathers start to develop from the second week and it takes just a few weeks for the young to look like their parents.They become darker brown as they grow older. Females are larger than males, weighing over 4 kg, while males weigh about 3.5 - 4kg. The wings of a Wedge-tailed eagle are about 2.5 metres from tip to tip. The birds grow to about a metre in length.

The Wedge-tailed Eagle has a wedge-shaped tail, and legs that are feathered all the way to the base of the toes.They fly high, reaching heights of about 2000m, soaring and gliding on air currents.

When a Wedge-tailed eagle is in flight, the wedge-shaped tail is obvious

Like all birds of prey, Wedge-tailed eagles have excellent eyesight, and as they glide high up in the sky they can spot small prey on the ground or flying below them. Eagles have sharp, hooked beaks that are as long as their heads. The hook on the end is used to pull and rip meat. Eagles have long strong claws called talons, which they use to grab their prey or to hold it as they tear off pieces of meat to eat.

Food
The most common food of Wedge-tailed eagles is rabbit, but they also eat lizards, birds and mammals. However, they also eat animals they find already dead, such as lambs or animals killed on the roads.

Wedge-tailed eagles may hunt alone, in pairs or in larger groups. Working together, a group of eagles can attack and kill animals as large as adult kangaroos. An eagle can lift a carcass about half its own weight.

Wedge-tailed eagles generally stay with the same partner. Breeding pairs establish a nesting territory of around 10 hectares and live there all year,defending it from other eagles. Outside of their nesting territory there are home ranges where the birds hunt but which they do not defend. Several breeding pairs and non-breeding birds share parts of the same home ranges.

Life Cycle
Wedge-tailed eagles build their nests in places where they get a good view of the surrounding countryside, usually in the tallest tree in their territory. In places where there are no tall trees, they will make nests in small trees, shrubs, cliff faces or even on the ground. The nest is a large platform, sometimes about 2 metres wide and 3 metres deep, made of dead sticks.The platforms have a shallow cup on the top, lined with fresh twigs and leaves. Wedge-tailed eagles often reuse the same nest for years.

Most breeding takes place April - September, though this varies according to the availability of food. Both male and female build the nest together, incubate the eggs and feed the young. After mating with a male, a female lays 2-3 speckled eggs over several days. It is about 42-45 days before the eggs hatch. The eggs hatch at different times. The first chick is bigger than the second, which is bigger than the third. The biggest chick has the best chance of surviving, and is often the only one that does. In a very good year when there is plenty of food, two chicks may survive. When food is scarce, the biggest chick will kill and eat the smaller ones.

For five weeks parents put food into their mouths to feed them, but after that the chicks can find bits of food placed on the floor of the nest and feed themselves. If predators threaten, chicks lie flat in the nest, and will defend themselves if necessary, because the adults do little to defend them.

After leaving the nest, young stay with the adults for 11-12 weeks before moving away to other places, sometimes quite a distance away.

Status and Threats
In mainland Australia, Wedge-tailed eagles are more common than many other large eagles around the world. However, the clearing of forests has reduced nesting areas available for them.

For many years, Wedge-tailed eagles were thought to kill lambs and were killed in large numbers. They are now protected by law and it is illegal to kill them deliberately. Today, a major threat to Wedge-tailed eagles is indirect poisoning: animals that die because they are poisoned by pesticides or baits are eaten by the eagles and the poison passes into the eagles. As they feed on animals lying dead on the roads, eagles are often killed or injured by vehicles. This is because, like other birds of prey, eagles don't take off quickly so they are often hit by cars as they try to fly out of the way.

Tasmanian Wedge-tailed eagles
In Tasmania, Wedge-tailed eagles are different because they have been isolated from those on the mainland and have developed separately. They are classified as Critically Endangered, threatened by habitat loss, nest disturbances and by being killed by trapping or shooting.

Find out more about Wedge-tailed eagles:
http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/npws.nsf/Content/The+wedge-tailed+eagle

Find out more about Tasmanian Wedge-tailed eagles:
http://www.dpiwe.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/BHAN-54GUYT?open

See a picture of a Wedge-tailed eagle feeding on a dead kangaroo : http://www.abc.net.au/storm/nino/twenty3.htm

If you use any part of this, acknowledge it in your bibliography like this:
Wedge-tailed Eagle (2003). [Online], Available: www.kidcyber.com.au