Food and Hunting of Eight Breeding Raptors Near Canberra, 1990–1994

Abstract

Prey remains, pellets and observations of hunting habits, gathered from eight species of breeding raptors (White-bellied Sea-Eagle Haliaeetus leucogaster, Brown Goshawk Accipiter fasciatus, Wedge-tailed Eagle Aquila audax, Little Eagle Hieraaetus morphnoides, Australian Hobby Falco longipennis, Peregrine Falcon F. peregrinus, Powerful Owl Ninox strenua and Southern Boobook N. novaeseelandiae), include the first quantitative account of the diet for inland Sea- Eagles and the first reports of the diet of the Brown Goshawk, Powerful Owl and Boobook in the Australian Capital Territory. We found seven new prey species for three of the raptors. The geometric mean prey weight calculated for the five raptor species with acceptable sample sizes (>10 items)—Sea-Eagle, Goshawk, Hobby, Peregrine Falcon and Boobook—correlated positively with mean mass of the raptor, except that Peregrines took more large prey items relative to their weight.