Aquila audax

The wedge-tailed eagle (Aquila audax) is the largest bird of prey in the continent of Australia. It is also found in southern New Guinea to the north and is distributed as far south as the state of Tasmania. This very large but fairly lanky eagle has long, broad wings, fully feathered legs, and an unmistakable wedge-shaped tail, with very elongated, strong beak and powerful feet. The wedge-tailed eagle is one of 12 species of large, predominantly dark-coloured booted eagles in the genus Aquila found worldwide. Genetic research has clearly indicated that the wedge-tailed eagle is fairly closely-related to other, generally large members of the Aquila genus.Lerner, H., Christidis, L., Gamauf, A., Griffiths, C., Haring, E., Huddleston, C.J., Kabra, S., Kocum, A., Krosby, M., Kvaloy, K., Mindell, D., Rasmussen, P., Rov, N., Wadleigh, R., Wink, M. & Gjershaug, J.O. (2017). Phylogeny and new taxonomy of the Booted Eagles (Accipitriformes: Aquilinae). Zootaxa, 4216(4), 301–320. A large brown-to-black bird of prey, it has a maximum reported wingspan of 2.84 m and a length of up to 1.06 m. The wedge-tailed eagle is one of its native continent's most generalized birds of prey.Debus, S. (2017). Australasian Eagles and Eagle-like Birds. CSIRO Publishing. They reside in most habitats present in Australia, ranging from desert and semi-desert to plains to mountainous areas to forest, even sometimes tropical rainforests. Preferred habitats, however, tend towards those that have a fairly varied topography including rocky areas, some open terrain and native woodlots such as Eucalyptus stands.Olsen, P. (2005). Wedge-tailed Eagle. Australian Natural History Series. CSIRO Publishing. The wedge-tailed eagle is one of the world's most powerful avian predators. Although a true generalist which hunts a wide range of prey, including birds, reptiles and, rarely, other taxa, this species is by and large a mammal predator.Olsen, J. (2014). Australian High Country Raptors. CSIRO Publishing. The introduction of the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) has been a boon to the wedge-tailed eagle and they hunt these and other invasive species in large volume, although the wedge-tailed eagle otherwise generally lives off of marsupials, including many surprisingly large macropods. Additionally, wedge-tailed eagles often eat not inconsiderable amounts of carrion, especially while young.Brown, L, & Amadon, D. (1986) Eagles, Hawks and Falcons of the World. The Wellfleet Press. . Wedge-tailed eagles tend to pair for several years, possibly mating for life. This species generally constructs a large stick nest in an ample tree, normally the largest in a stand, and lays typically two, although sometimes 1 to 4, eggs. Usually breeding efforts manage to produce one or two fledglings, which after a few months more tend to disperse widely. Nesting failures are usually attributable to human interference such as logging activity and other alterations, which both degrade habitats and cause disturbances. This species is known to be highly sensitive to human disturbance at the nest, which may lead to abandonment of the young.Bekessy, S. A., Wintle, B. A., Gordon, A., Fox, J. C., Chisholm, R., Brown, B., Regan, T., Mooney, N., Read, S. & Burgman, M. A. (2009). Modelling human impacts on the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle (Aquila audax fleayi). Biological conservation, 142(11), 2438–2448. Although historically heavily persecuted by humans via poisonings and shootings, mostly for alleged predation on sheep, wedge-tailed eagles have proved to be exceptionally resilient and have quickly rebounded to similar or even higher than pre-colonization numbers, thanks in part to humans inadvertently providing several food sources such as rabbits and large volumes of roadkills.Knobel, J. (2015). The conservation status of the Wedge-tailed Eagle in Australian law and thoughts on the value of early legal intervention in the conservation of a species. De Jure Law Journal, 48(2), 293–311.

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