Wedge-tailed eagle
Aquila audax
The most iconic species found at Whiteman Park is the wedge-tailed eagle, from which the Park takes its logo.
Known as the waalitj to the local Noongar people, there has been a nesting pair at Whiteman Park for decades, but a second nesting pair was recorded in 2016 and both have remained in the Park since.
The wedge-tailed eagle has an amazing wingspan of over two metres and can be easily spotted when they are soaring overhead!
If you are lucky enough to spot one of our local wedgies when you’re in the Park, you can try to work out how old they are by their feather colour, as the eagles actually get darker as they age. Juveniles begin as a lovely warm brown colour before darkening to almost black around ten years of age!
With two nesting pairs in the Park, it can be an interesting challenge to work out who is who, but local eagle expert and the Park’s consultant ornithologist, Simon Cherriman, advises that they keep to their own territories, so the southern pair can be spotted over Horse Swamp and the Marshall Road paddocks, while the norther pair are usually sighted over the Village and to the north. The northern pair are also very successful parents - it is rare to see two eagle chicks raised out of the same nest, our northern pair do it regularly!
FAUNA PROFILE
| Family | Accipitridae |
| Scientific name | Aquila audax |
| Noongar name | waalitj |
| Common name | wedge-tailed eagle |
| Conservation status | Least Concern |
| Habitat | woodlands |
| Park occurrence | Resident |
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Banner image: wedge-tailed eagle coming in to land, courtesy of S. Cherriman.