Wedge-tailed Eagle

90 cm-1.1 m; span to 2.8 m. Female larger. Huge, dark eagle with whitish bill, long, closely feathered legs and long, diamond-shaped tail; male blacker than female. Old adults are mostly black, with varying degrees of chestnut nape; tawny band across wing. Immatures and sub-adults to c. 5 years browner, patchy; hindneck and wing coverts pale golden brown to straw-coloured. Singles, pairs, family parties: companies at dead kangaroos, etc. Perches conspicuously on live or dead trees, telephone poles, or ground. Flies with easy, powerful wingbeats and glides on upswept wings; soars high in majestic circles, large tail prominent; wings noticeably upswept, underwing showing a line of white down along centre of wing at junction of feather-tracts, and whitish bases of primaries. Parties soar and skirmish in wind over steep hills, gorges, peaks. Conspicuous territorial display of linked, U-shaped dives on half-closed wings, toppling forward into another dive at apex of each vertical recovery.