Wedge-tailed eagle

"Eaglehawk" redirects here. For other uses, see Eaglehawk (disambiguation).

Wedge-tailed eagle
At Captains Flat, New South Wales
CITES Appendix II (CITES)[2]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Accipitriformes
Family: Accipitridae
Genus: Aquila
Species:
A. audax
Binomial name
Aquila audax
(Latham, 1801)
Subspecies[3]
  • A. a. audax (Latham, 1801)
  • A. a. fleayi Condon & Amadon, 1954
Range of A. audax
  Resident
Synonyms
  • Vultur audax Latham, 1801
  • Aquila albirostris Vieillot, 1816
  • Aquila fuscosa Dumont, 1816
  • Aquila cuneicaudata C.L. Brehm, 1845
  • Aquila audax carteri Mathews, 1912

The wedge-tailed eagle (Aquila audax) also known as the eaglehawk, 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.[1] Adults of the species have long, broad wings, fully feathered legs, an unmistakable wedge-shaped tail, an elongated upper mandible, a strong beak and powerful feet.[4] 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.[5] A large brown-to-black bird of prey, it has a maximum reported wingspan of 2.84 m (9 ft 4 in) and a length of up to 1.06 m (3 ft 6 in).[6]

The wedge-tailed eagle is one of its native continent's most generalised birds of prey.[7] 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.[7][8]

The wedge-tailed eagle is one of the world's most powerful avian predators.[8] Although a true generalist, which hunts a wide range of prey, including birds, reptiles and, rarely, other taxa, the species is, by and large, a mammal predator.[8][9] 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 carrion, especially while young.[7][8][10] The species tends to pair for several years, possibly mating for life.[8]

Wedge-tailed eagles usually construct a large stick nest in an ample tree, normally the largest in a stand, and typically lay two eggs, although sometimes one to four.[7] Usually, breeding efforts manage to produce one or two fledglings which, after a few months more, tend to disperse widely.[9] Nesting failures are usually attributable to human interference, such as logging activity and other alterations, which both degrade habitats and cause disturbances. The species is known to be highly sensitive to human disturbance at the nest, which may lead to abandonment of the young.[11]

Although historically heavily persecuted by humans through poisoning and shooting, mostly for alleged predation on sheep, wedge-tailed eagles have proved to be exceptionally resilient, and their numbers have quickly rebounded to being similar or even higher numbers than before European colonisation, thanks in part to humans inadvertently providing several food sources, such as rabbits and a large volume of roadkill.[1][7][12]

  1. ^ a b c BirdLife International (2016). "Aquila audax". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22696064A93542539. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22696064A93542539.en. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  2. ^ "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  3. ^ Gill F, D Donsker & P Rasmussen (Eds). 2020. IOC World Bird List (v10.2). doi : 10.14344/IOC.ML.10.2.
  4. ^ Ferguson-Lees, J.; Christie, D. (2001). Raptors of the World. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 0-618-12762-3.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ Debus, S.J.S. (1994). "Wedge-tailed Eagle (Aquila audax)". In del Hoyo, Elliott; Sargatal (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 2. p. 198. ISBN 84-87334-15-6.
  7. ^ a b c d e Debus, S. (2017). Australasian Eagles and Eagle-like Birds. CSIRO Publishing.
  8. ^ a b c d e Olsen, P. (2005). Wedge-tailed Eagle. Australian Natural History Series. CSIRO Publishing.
  9. ^ a b Olsen, J. (2014). Australian High Country Raptors. CSIRO Publishing.
  10. ^ Brown, L, & Amadon, D. (1986) Eagles, Hawks and Falcons of the World. The Wellfleet Press. ISBN 978-1555214722.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ 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.