Active wedge tail eagles nest?

["Pedroanddi" <>]

Another confusion.

 

I have now had a chance to unpack my books which have been stored  away while the painters have been in.

 

On p.71 of 'Birds of Prey and Ground Birds of Australia' (Olsen/Cromie/Olsen) there is a photo of a WTE at around the same state of development as the one I saw on Sat 14 Oct. Here it is referred to as a "chick".

 

Peter Mellor

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Geoffrey Dabb [
Sent: Sunday, 22 October 2006 8:24 PM
To:
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Active wedge tail eagles nest?

I don’t think Philip’s comment has quite got to the heart of the confusion.  There are two separate meanings attributed to the verb ‘fledge’ :  (a) traditional:  to acquire flight feathers (b) recent  ‘scientific’:  to fly from the nest.  So far as I am aware, the noun ‘fledgling’ is used only in relation to sense (a) ie applying to a bird that has acquired flight feathers but not yet left the nest.  The best word for a bird that has left the nest is perhaps ‘juvenile’.  Were it otherwise there would be no end point to ‘fledgling’, which would become hopelessly confusing.

 

Clarity is not promoted by asserting that one sense or the other is correct.  Anyone using ‘fledge’ in any of its forms should clarify the sense in which they are using it. 

        

 

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From: Philip Veerman [
Sent: Sunday, October 15, 2006 5:27 PM
To: Pedroanddi
Cc:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Active wedge tail eagles nest?

 

Hi Peter,

 

It is actually a nestling, not a fledgling. As it is obviously from your description still downy, and more to the point has not left the nest yet (at which point a nestling becomes a fledgling), see recent discussion on this. I can't comment on what species it is. Both our eagle species have white down.

 

Philip