John & Shirley Tongue write :Does anyone know whether Wedge tailed Eagles "kick the 'teenagers' out of home"?For the Labour Day Holiday, we visited Bruny Island, and between leaving the ferry, and coming to the Barnes Bay turnoff, we noticed three Wedgetails. We assumed these to be a family group, but were surprised when we stopped for a closer look, to see quite an aggressive display going on. They were all swooping and diving at one another, and calling excitedly as they did so. Unfortunately, it was all too suddenly over, as the three swooped low over the trees heading away from us, and were gone. Not even time to grab my camera (I cheated with the pic--it's of eagles in Central Australia a couple of years ago). Could this display have been Mum and Dad giving "Junior" his marching orders?
3 comments:
I note that the collective noun for eagles is a convocation!
Wedgetails are extremely territorial, at least during the breeding season. I can recall a captive burd at Healesville Zoo that was free flown during a birds of prey show. A pair of Wedgetails that we had noticed earlier, soaring at great height (just visible to the naked eye), descended, at great speed, on this hapless captive bird and tried hard to inflict serious harm!
Hi Alan,
We saw a very similar occurrence at the free-flight show at Alice Springs "Zoo" a couppe of years ago, only this time the wild bird only made one swoop at the one putting on the show, and then was gone. Must be pretty nerve-wracking for the 'captive' bird.
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