Wedge-Tailed Eagle Bird:

The Wedge-tailed eagle, also popularly known as the eaglehawk, is one of the world’s largest eagles and the largest raptor known to man. The bird is characterized by its long, large wings and the distinctive wedge shaped tail. The eaglehawk also has fully feathered legs which makes it appear extremely large.
The wedge tailed eagle is known to be one of the largest birds of prey in the world and is not very hard to spot, owing to its wedge shaped tail. The eagle is predominantly dark in color, seen in different shades of dark brown. Since the wings are rather large, the wingspan is huge and usually averages to about 8-8.5 feet. The length of the eagle itself is about 4 feet. It is believed that the wedge tailed eagle is a subspecies of the Verreaux’s eagle, Golden eagle, and Gurney’s eagle. The female is much larger than the male and may weight from 9 lbs. to 12 lbs. The male eagle weighs around 6-9 lbs.

When young, the eagle is usually a mild brown in color, but as it grows, the color becomes darker, ultimately becoming a black-brown color by the time they are adults. It has been observed that the males are slightly darker than the females. The wedge tailed eagles are found abundantly in Australia and Tasmania. They are easily spotted in the open country—especially in the southern and the eastern parts of the continent. The mating rituals of the wedge tailed eagle include a dramatic display of aerobatic flights. A pair may often be seen performing various mid flight acrobatics.

The eaglehawks nest in the wedges of trees. They are not particular about having a new nest. Sometimes, they may simply add new sticks or leaves to an old and abandoned nest. Sometimes, if there is a scarcity of trees or an appropriate nesting place, the eagles may nest on a cliff edge. Both the birds contribute to building a nest. Both the male and the female take turns to incubate the eggs. The young fledglings depend on their parents for food for about six months, after which they become independent and fly away.
The birds fly at very high altitudes and may soar for many hours without beating their wings even once. They can reach 5900 feet easily and may even go higher sometimes. They have very keen eyesight which can see through both the infrared and ultraviolet bands. Since they fly at such high altitudes, their keen eyesight helps them spot prey many feet below.