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Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about wedge tailed eagles. Don’t forget to soar over that subscribe button, and thank you to Gday LA for today’s high flying request. As the name might implay, wedge tailed eagles have a distinctly angular tail shape that’s easy to identify. These birds can be found throughout most of the Australian mainland as well as the island of Tasmania and parts of New Guinea. Wedge-tailed eagles are the largest birds of prey found in Australia having a wingspan of more than eight feet in length; which is more than a foot longer than their American cousin, the golden eagle. Of course, they’re not the biggest birds in Australia. In weight, wedge tailed eagles average about seven and a half pounds (3.4kg) with females often appearing slightly larger. The females may also look a bit paler than the males, though these birds don’t develop their dark adult feathers until about six years of age. Until that time they’re either white balls of fluff or much lighter versions of their parents.

Wedge tailed eagles mate for life and may or may not seek out a new mate if a previous mate has died. They live in most environments of the Australian landscape with the exception of more urbanized areas, and they defend their territories during breeding months by making display dives. Diving is also their way of flirting. Male wedge tailed eagles will initiate nest building. They usually reuse a nest from a previous year and just add more to it- meaning their nests can grow to mighty proportions with larger nests measuring nearing six feet (1.8 meters) in length and almost 10 feet (3 meters) in depth. That giant nest in the Rescuers Down Under sort of makes sense now. A female wedge tailed eagle will lay anywhere from one to four speckled eggs over the course of a few days. The eggs are incubated for about a month and a half, it’ll be another three months before the chicks leave the nest. The young bird depend on their parents for upwards of another half a year, but eventually they’ll move on to find their own territory.

In the wild, wedge tailed eggs have been documented living past a decade. They’re considered top predators once they reach adult size with nobody really picking on them besides humans. As eggs and nestlings, they might be taken by monitor lizards- or killed off by a sibling. Yeah, even these birds will beat up their brothers and sisters if it’s a bad year for food. The kind of food they eat includes rabbits, lizards, wombats, bandicoots, and carrion. If a carcass is big enough, it’s not unheard of to see multiple wedge tailed eagles all partaking in the feast, themselves usually being able to drive off any other scavengers. Heck, they’ve even been seen taking down kangaroos - anything that can do that is a badass in my book because kangaroos are like Australian ninja. Because golden eagles have been caught taking lambs from farmers, some people hold a grudge. Wedge tailed eagles, however, are a protected species, and it’s illegal to kill them; plus, studies have shown their impact on lambs is negligible as they nearly always take sick or injured individuals. Also, these guys are pretty great at taking out the invasive European rabbits roaming the Australian outback, so they’re doing a good job in the end.

For more facts on wedge tailed eagles, check out the links in the description. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.