Aquila audax fleayi
The Wedge-tailed eagle is a massive bird, weighing up to 5kg and having a wingspan of 2.2meters (7 feet) It has a long
wedge shaped tail which gives it its name, and feathered legs.
The bird has dark brown feathers which darken as it matures until it is almost black in adulthood.
Wedge-tailed Eagles nest in the largest
eucalypts and sheltered from the wind. A breeding pair require more than 10
hectares of surrounding forest to keep themselves and their chicks fed.
The Wedge tailed eagle is a hunter and exists mainly on small animals like
rabbits, as well as the young of creatures such as
dingos and
kangaroos. Wedge-tailed Eagles also depend heavily on
carrion for food.
The Wedge-tailed Eagle is listed as "
vulnerable" by the Tasmanian Threatened Species Protection Act 1995, and has recently been included in the Federal list as
critically threatened. This is partially because the birds
habitat has been vastly lessened by urbanisation, and the fact that the birds breed slowly, but the fact that farmers shoot many eagles because they think they kill lambs, rather than merely
scavenge on dead lambs which many scientists believe is all they do with them.