The wedge-tailed eagle is Australia’s largest raptor.
It is one of the world’s largest raptors, and is almost certainly the most abundant of any of the world’s big eagles.
Wedge-tails range across almost all of Australia.
They are, however, very “difficult”, photographically speaking.
Until the fifth afternoon of June 2023 I had never taken a “successful” photo of an airborne wedge-tail.
Circa 30 minutes drive north of Wilpena Pound, Stokes Hill involves a very steep drive to a lookout which provides magnificent Flinders Ranges vistas, in every direction. (as as a future post will illustrate)
On a brisk, intermittently-sunny winter afternoon Stokes Hill also provided this post’s hero, some fleetingly-“right” light, and some good luck.
For wedge-tails, post-1788 humans have provided unprecedented levels of opportunity; guess who introduced the rabbits and hares which are now the most important “live” component of the eagles’ diet?
We have also threatened the species’ very survival…sometimes, via ignorance-fuelled attempts to kill the alleged “sheep-killers”.
We also did so accidentally, via the destruction of their habitat, or the poisoning of their prey.
Happily, at least in relation to wedge-tails, it appears that we, collectively, have now become more enlightened, less murderous.
Wedgie-wise, it is nigh-impossible to conduct a reliable census, but the number of sightings we have enjoyed in recent times – and my “hunchometer” – suggest that wedge-tail numbers are currently rising.
Click this for a succinct overview of Aquila audax, or here for a much more detailed one.
Wow! Brilliant photos.