|
| |
To listen to soundfile: click on the headphones icon
To download soundfile: click on the mp3 file name
|
|
| |
Most work on our native birds in cities and suburbs has focused on communities of little birds and only recently has attention started to shift to bigger birds. In general, most of our larger native creatures have not coped well with urbanisation, but currently, one group that is making a comeback is the birds of prey – both daytime and night hunters. |
| Again it is only a small group of species that are showing they can cope quite well and take advantage of what is available in the cities. And one thing that is readily available in the cities that allows owls and other birds of prey to thrive is a ready supply of prey, both night (rats, mice, cockroaches) and day (plump feral pigeons).
Peregrine Falcons numbers plummeted in the 1960s as a result of this top predator’s exposure to excessive levels of the insecticide DDT via accumulation of DDT levels in the fat of animals lower in the food chain. In DDT’s heyday, success of breeding fell dramatically because DDT led to egg shells being thin and fragile.
With the banning of DDT, many avian species are making a comeback, including Peregrine Falcons who are now returning in good numbers to cities including London and Chicago, living on the sides of skyscrapers (equivalent to the steep walls of canyons!) and feeding on the flocks of pigeons.
|
|
|
| |
Above: Black Shouldered Kite. Photo from Darryl Jones.
Below left and right baby Tawny Frogmouths rescued by WIRES Wildlife Service in suburban Sydney. Photos by Tracey Adams. | | Small hovering kites are also doing quite well (kestrels and kites) reflecting the ready availability of their preferred habitat of expansive open grassy areas (eg the local airfields). Large numbers of these birds relish these areas, feedingbon mice, grasshoppers and other insects. The Tawny Frogmouth is the most common night bird of prey. Thanks to night lighting that attract insects and moths, the waiting owls have a ready food supply. Boobooks are similar in their culinary preferences to the hovering kites and feed on nocturnal insects and even large spiders that they pluck from their webs.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Powerful Owls do surprisingly well. This is due to the abundance of possums, gliders and flying foxes in cities and suburbs have an abundance of these species. Powerful Owls do not live in the cities or suburbs but rather in nearby forest areas and will do well so long as there is near to their suburban or city food source, a large forest area where they can live and breed.
|
|
| |
| However these are only a handful of birds of prey species that are coping well. Most haven’t coped at all with cities. Typically birds of prey are territorial and need a large area to patrol, which means that small population densities are only ever likely. By far the majority of birds of prey including the owls will only survive in the bushy areas around cities and not move particularly into the suburbs.
Associate Professor Darryl Jones was interviewed for A Question of Balance by Ruby Vincent. Summary text by Victor Barry.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 For more information, please contact us |
)
