Once aloft, a wedge-tailed eagle generally appears “effortless”.
However, on the ground, wedge-tails are quite “clumsy”, and getting airborne again is decidedly (and obviously) effortful for any eagle in flattish terrain.
At 10.09 am on 09 June 2023 we saw a wedge-tail achieve “lift off”…and for the second time in my life-to-date/ in June this year I “got lucky”, wedgie-photo-wise.
Worth noting: for a large eagle, a wedge-tail’s head-proper is relatively small, but its beak is uncommonly large.