Tag:eagles
The Little Eagle is one of the smallest species of Eagle found worldwide. They are a small to medium-sized, stocky yet powerful birds native to Australia. Due to their size and colouring, they are often confused with the Whistling Kite.
Little eagles have short, broad heads with moderately long tails, square-cut at the tip when closed. They have two ‘phases’ in their colouring – a light and a dark phase. During the light phase, when in flight, they are often mistaken for the Whistling Kite. They have heavily feathered legs, and when perched, they have a short crest. The plumage varies from light to dark brown, with a pale broken ‘M’ on the upper parts, easily visible from a distance. The underside of the wing also has a pale M-shaped band. The broad wings have a span of one metre with dark tips.
Flight
The Little Eagle has a distinctive flight pattern of soaring in tight circles with flat wings. They advertise their territory by a soaring, undulating flight display and conspicuous perching and calling.
Habitat and Distribution
The habitat of the Little Eagle is dry eucalypt, sheoak or acacia woodlands, forests and open country. They tend to avoid rainforests and the densely forested area of the Great Dividing Range. Their distribution is widespread across mainland Australia and central and eastern New Guinea.
Diet
The Little Eagle is a raptor (bird of prey) and, as such, is a carnivore. They hunt for their prey on the wing or from a high, exposed perch, taking their prey on the ground or in the tree canopy. Their prey includes rabbits, other live mammals and insects and occasionally carrion. The Little Eagle originally ate a diet of small birds, mammals, and reptiles, sometimes supplementing with insects; however, their diet changed with the introduction of foxes and rabbits. As rabbits quickly became abundant across Australia, and they found them an ideal prey source, becoming their primary diet. However, the release of the Calicivirus in 1996 caused a sharp 65% to 85% decrease in the rabbit population. At the same time, the foxes were taking their traditional prey of mammals and reptiles. With rabbits now less abundant, they also have to compete against foxes for their traditional prey.
Breeding
Little Eagles breed annually. They make their nest in mature living trees in open woodland or alongside rivers and will rarely nest in isolated trees. Instead, they create a nest in an open bowl shape constructed of twigs and branches lined with leaves. The pair will build the nests in winter, and the female lays two to three eggs in spring. The female incubates eggs for the 37-day incubation period and then feeds the hatchlings while the male hunts for food. The male, however, will hatch the chicks while the female eats the food he has brought her. The chicks will fledge in summer.
In 2009 only three breeding pairs were recorded in the ACT. However, in the 2017-2018 breeding season, a minimum of nine nesting pairs of Little Eagles were confirmed in the ACT, with four more breeding pairs just over the border in NSW. Of those eight pairs, just one chick was raised. A Currawong destroyed one nest, another breeding pair lost their egg in a storm, and the other pairs either lost eggs to unknown means or did not lay.
Threats
The main threats to the species are secondary poisoning from rabbit baiting, plus fragmentation and degradation of its habitat. The habitat loss also causes the little Eagle to compete with the larger, more dominant Wedge-tail Eagle. Once common in the ACT, they have significantly declined by over 70% in the last 20 years.
Status
They are listed on the IUCN Red List as of least concern. The conservation status of the Little Eagle is secure in NT, Qld, SA, Vic and WA. However, it is considered vulnerable throughout NSW, with only a single population. The Little Eagle is not present in Tasmania. In NSW, the Environment Dept. has added the Little Eagle to the ‘Save our species‘ program. Among other measures, they plan to raise land managers’ awareness of the risks of secondary poisoning from using Pindone or second-generation rodenticides. Instead, they encourage alternative poisons and control techniques such as warren ripping.
The Wedge-tail Eagle, known colloquially as a ‘wedgie’, is the largest Australian raptor (bird of prey), standing at a metre tall. A truly magnificent bird, the Wedge-tail Eagle has an average wingspan of 2.3 metres though it can be up to 2.8 metres. They are Australia’s biggest bird of prey and one of the biggest eagles in the world and are similar in size to the American Bald Eagle. The Wedge-tail Eagle has a pale pink to cream beak, dark brown eyes, off-white feet and a wedge-shaped tail. They have a lifespan of 20 to 40 years. Males are 3.2 to 4 kg, while females are a slightly paler colour, larger and heavier at 4.2 to 5kg. Both sexes become progressively darker for the first ten years of their life.
Habitat & Distribution
The Wedge-tailed Eagle prefers wooded, forested land and open county. However, they can also be found in the mountains, near the sea, soaring in the air, or high in trees surveying their territory. The Wedge-tail is located in mainland Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea. However, the Tasmanian Wedge-tail eagle is a distinct sub-species with genetic testing revealing the two species separated 200 to 1000 years ago. The Tasmanian population was established by mainland individuals flying across Bass Strait. Tasmanian Wedge-tails are darker in colour, have larger bodies and produce only one egg per clutch.
Diet
The Wedge-tails’ primary food source is carrion, preying on ground-dwelling animals and attacking with a fast swooping motion. Their diet consists of rabbits, mammals, lizards, possums, foxes, feral cats and carrion, and the eggs of other birds. They can carry prey up to 5kg in weight in their talons.
Eyesight
The Wedge-tail has binocular vision in which they can see their prey from great distances and in 8 times more detail than humans. In addition, their uniquely adapted eyes allow them to squeeze and extend their eyeball, enabling them to use their eyes similar to the zoom lens on a camera. Eagles have a third eyelid called the nictitating membrane. This eyelid is translucent and sweeps quickly across the eye from the inside corner. The eagle will sweep the nictitating membrane across the eye every few seconds to moisten and lubricate it. While it’s not completely clear, it still allows them to see.
Breeding
The breeding season occurs from June to October. They are monogamous, mating for life. Both the male and female groom each other during the breeding season. They build the nest together from sticks and leaves in the tallest tree in their area. The nest measures up to two metres wide and three metres deep. They often reuse the same nest year after year. A breeding pair usually only lays one clutch of eggs a year.
The female Wedge-tail lays a clutch of between 1 to 3 eggs over several days. Because of this, the eggs also hatch at different times. The female primarily incubates the eggs, while the male lines the nest daily with fresh leaves. The eggs hatch after 45 days, and chicks emerge covered in white downy feathers. The first chick that hatches is always the largest and sometimes kills the other chicks. The chicks are dependent on their parents for food for the first five weeks. The young Wedge-tail eagle leaves the nest after 12 weeks. However, they are not fully mature for six to eight years.
Threats
Wedge-tail Eagles are very common in Victoria. Sadly, farmers once considered them a menace. Convinced that the eagles carried off lambs, thousands of eagles were shot or poisoned. Subsequent research has found this false, as they rarely attack healthy lambs and never full-grown sheep. Current threats to Wedge-tails are loss of habitat due to clearing land and secondary poisoning from eating animals that have died from pesticides and baits. Road vehicle accidents also account for many deaths, with cars hitting the eagles while they are on the road eating roadkill. Additionally, wind farms also have an impact on their numbers.
Status
Wedge-tail eagles are protected in Victoria. Their status in Victoria is ‘secure’, and fines of up to $8000 apply to anyone found “killing, harassing or disturbing” the eagles.
We travelled to the arctic circle, Cairns, Qld, NZ, Melbourne, Stonehenge, and Norway on the first part of our imaginary travel journey. Then, we left Norway and sailed across to Greenland, continuing our imaginary journey. Finally, with a white wolf as our guide and a nosey penguin demanding to know why we were breaking quarantine, we observed the passage of Jupiter and Saturn across a dawn sky.
Before leaving Greenland, we checked in on the polar bears we repatriated. Two of them were off hunting, but we spent a pleasant half-hour with Brutus. Unfortunately, he had stayed behind due to an injured toe (he’d stubbed it on the nosy penguin).
We said goodbye to Brutus, ducked out on the nosy penguin, and sailed to Paris. We planned to shoot a sunset from the top of the Eiffel tower during the annual migration of the Dodo bird. Being an imaginary travel journey, our planning and timing worked perfectly with no real-life nasty border problems, and we arrived just in time to catch them fly past.
From Paris, we took the train to Munich, just in time to catch the second wave of Dodo’s as they flew past. Our view from the top of the town hall clock tower was superb.
After a few beers in a German beer hall, we climbed the narrow staircase to the attic and went through the wardrobe to Wilsons Prom, where Aslan was waiting for us.
We strolled along the beach with Aslan and listened to how things were going in Melbourne (badly), but he felt the tide was turning, and it was time to go. With that, we hopped in our boat and made our way to Kangaroo Island. Our guide this time was Gandalf. He had just arrived via eagle express and, knowing the SA police would be on our tail for sneaking in a back way. He was anxious to be on our way.
We travelled around Kangaroo Island for a few days – trying to look like locals and keeping to the backroads. Our last stop on KI was Seal Bay – a fabulous spot and final landfall before Antarctica – which we weren’t going to. We had enough of the cold in the arctic circle. So we were heading home now. One night at a curiously named hotel and then back to Melbourne.
We did wonder, though – if Hotel Hell would live up to its name or it was just a tourist trap.
That’s the end of our journey… I hope you enjoyed travelling with us.