Food
Rabbits and carrion, but also young dingoes, marsupials and birds.
Voice
A wavering, high, rising whistle leading into a short, lower, descending 'pseet-you, pseet-you'. Screams uttered in aggressive encounters. Usually silent outside of the breeding season.
Wedge-tailed Eagle (Aquila audax) [XC184703]
by id from Camballin, Western Australia, Australia (begging call)
Wedge-tailed Eagle (Aquila audax) [XC165139]
by Marc Anderson from Pannawonica, Western Australia, Australia (alarm call)
Nest
A very large structure (up to 2.5 m across), composed of sticks and lined with soft bark and leaves, especially green leaves when young are in the nest, in a tree, often one that is isolated or commands a good view of the surrounding countryside.
Eggs (Guide)
1 - 3, usually 2; white to pale buff-green, sparsely splotched with purple and brown; rounded-oval; about 73 x 58 mm. Incubation: about 45 days; by female. If there is more than one egg, one is invariable more lightly marked than the other, and occasionally pure white.
Young
Semi-altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in 70 - 90 days.
Subspecies
Has been considered to form superspecies with Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), and possibly also with Gurney's Eagle (Aquila gurneyi).
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
audax (Latham, 1801) - Mainland Australia, southern New Guinea.
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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BirdLife International Species Factsheet