Ngooni: a Twin for Tronox

Today's EXCITING news is that Tronox (key sponsors of Baakininy, a female whose transmitter dismounted in 2019) in collaboration with the WA Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions' Perth Hills District, are now supporting Ngooni's ongoing travels! Ngooni is the eagle pictured on the right of the first two of this post's images. You might remember the above beautiful brood of 'twin' Waalitj / Wedge-tailed Eaglets from September 2017? Only a handful of Wedge-tailed Eagle breeding pairs rear both eaglets to fledging age, and the parents of these two fluff-balls was one of them.

A return visit to their eyrie in late October 2017 saw both male eagles, who had transformed into healthy juveniles, fitted with GPS/Satellite transmitters, when they were also given beautiful Noongar names: Ngooni (brother) and Naakal (quiet one). Both birds dispersed widely into the arid and tropical zones of Western Australia, spending months wandering this vast landscape. Ngooni left the Perth Hills in May and moved to the Pilbara coast for some months, as shown in the below map (left, click to enlarge):

He then continued his wandering journey, travelling south-west from the Pilbara coast to the Murchsion River and west coast near Kalbarri in September 2018, where he has spent most of his time since (above map, right).

Ngooni now looks much like the eagle picture above: a powerful predator with characteristic juvenile banded markings on his primary and secondary feathers, and overall 'golden' plumage. Ngooni has travelled thousands of kilometres during his first 2 years of life, and is likely to continue to move widely, and thanks to amazing technology (both tracking and the internet's ability to help us share information as widely as these birds move) we will be able to follow him! You can visit my Instagram page and search the hashtags #Ngooni for more updates of this west coast eagle's journeys. Will he make it all the way to the MCG!? :)