Jerry Olsen ‘Raptors of the ACT’

14 raptor species breed in the relatively small confines of the Australian Capital Territory. Many breed in the city, and sometimes they catch prey species said not to exist in the ACT region. How do these different raptor species select different habitats, and different mammal, bird, fish, reptile and invertebrate prey species so there isn’t too much overlap? Given the rapid rate of suburban expansion in the ACT and destruction of habitats, will we still have 14 breeding raptor species 10 years from now?

Jerry Olsen is a member of the Institute for Applied Ecology at the University of Canberra. He has authored or co-authored about 100 research papers and six books on Australian raptors. Australian High Country Owls and Australian High Country Raptors (2011 and 2014, CSIRO Publishing) are about ACT raptors.