Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Accipitriformes > Accipitridae > Aquila > Aquila audax

Aquila audax (Wedge-tailed Eagle)

Wikipedia Abstract

The wedge-tailed eagle or bunjil (Aquila audax), sometimes known as the eaglehawk, is the largest bird of prey in Australia, and is also found in southern New Guinea, part of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. It has long, fairly broad wings, fully feathered legs, and an unmistakable wedge-shaped tail. The wedge-tailed eagle is one of 12 species of large, predominantly dark-coloured booted eagles in the genus Aquila found worldwide. A large brown bird of prey, it has a wingspan up to 2.84 m (9 ft 4 in) and a length up to 1.06 m (3 ft 6 in).
View Wikipedia Record: Aquila audax

Infraspecies

Aquila audax audax
Aquila audax fleayi (Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle)

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
2
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
17
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 5.54257
EDGE Score: 1.87833
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Clutch Size [7]  2
Clutches / Year [2]  2
Fledging [2]  79 days
Incubation [6]  45 days
Mating Display [3]  Non-acrobatic aerial display
Mating System [3]  Monogamy
Maximum Longevity [8]  40 years
Raptor Research Conservation Priority [9]  125
Snout to Vent Length [2]  38 inches (96 cm)
Water Biome [1]  Coastal
Wing Span [6]  6.79 feet (2.07 m)
Adult Weight [2]  7.602 lbs (3.448 kg)
Birth Weight [3]  143 grams
Female Weight [5]  8.378 lbs (3.80 kg)
Male Weight [5]  6.905 lbs (3.132 kg)
Weight Dimorphism [5]  21.3 %
Diet [4]  Carnivore (Vertebrates)
Diet - Ectothermic [4]  30 %
Diet - Endothermic [4]  50 %
Diet - Scavenger [4]  20 %
Forages - Canopy [4]  30 %
Forages - Ground [4]  70 %
Female Maturity [2]  4 years 5 months
Male Maturity [2]  3 years

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Southwest Australia Australia No

Emblem of

Northern Territory

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Consumers

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 2Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 3Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 4Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 5Brooker, M. (1996) Morphometrics of the Wedge-tailed Eagle Aquila audax. Corella 20: 129–135.
♦ 6del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 7Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
♦ 8de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 9Buechley ER, Santangeli A, Girardello M, et al. Global raptor research and conservation priorities: Tropical raptors fall prey to knowledge gaps. Divers Distrib. 2019;25:856–869. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12901
♦ 10Breeding Biology and Diet of the Wedge-tailed Eagle Aquila audax in the New England Region of New South Wales, S.J.S. DEBUS, T.S. HATFIELD, A.J. LEY and A.B. ROSE, AUSTRALIAN FIELD ORNITHOLOGY 2007, 24, 93–120
♦ 11Olsen, J., Judge, D., Fuentes, E., Rose, AB and Debus, S. (2010). Diets of Wedge-tailed Eagles (Aquila audax) and Little Eagles (Hieraaetus morphnoides) breeding near Canberra, Australia Journal of Raptor Research 44: 50–61
♦ 12Chalinolobus gouldii, Bryan Chruszcz and Robert M. R. Barclay, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 690, pp. 1–4 (2002)
♦ 13Who's Eating Who
♦ 14Dasyurus maculatus, Menna E. Jones, Robert K. Rose, and Scott Burnett, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 676, pp. 1–9 (2001)
♦ 15Myrmecobius fasciatus (Dasyuromorphia: Myrmecobiidae), CHRISTINE ELIZABETH COOPER, MAMMALIAN SPECIES 43(881):129–140 (2011)
♦ 16Petauroides volans (Diprotodontia: Pseudocheiridae), JAMIE M. HARRIS AND K. SHANE MALONEY, MAMMALIAN SPECIES 42(866):207–219 (2010)
♦ 17Species Interactions of Australia Database, Atlas of Living Australia, Version ala-csv-2012-11-19
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0