Birds of the World Discovery Series | The Cornell Lab of Ornithology | https://birdsoftheworld.org

Birds of the World is the world’s leading scholarly, digital platform featuring avian life histories and data resources for every bird in the world. This global ornithology resource powers scientific research, education, and biodiversity conservation worldwide.

In today’s discovery webinar we welcome Dr. Steve Debus, an ornithologist from New South Wales, Australia and author of The Birds of Prey of Australia, A Field Guide (2019) and Australian Falcons: Ecology, Behaviour and Conservation (2022). Steve developed a particular admiration for the Black Falcon, a little-studied Australian endemic which was recently discovered to have genetic ties to the hierofalcons. In his spare time, Steve and a colleague conducted field studies of the Black Falcon, which led to several papers on the breeding biology, behaviour and foraging ecology of the species. Steve recently updated the Birds of the World Black Falcon species account. In this webinar, Steve will relate fascinating details on the life history of this fast and agile raptor.

REFERENCE: https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/speci...

#birds #ornithology #science #endemic #australianbirds

SPECIAL GUEST

DR. STEPHEN J.S. DEBUS has been interested in raptors since childhood, but first studied the biology of the Black Falcon in a voluntary capacity in 2004. Since then he has studied various raptors in the field, including Black Falcons in 2010–2016, in a voluntary (spare-time) capacity around a postdoctoral fellowship on woodland passerines, and working as an ecological consultant for government and industry on fauna surveys, assessments, and conservation plans (mainly birds) while also co-supervising graduate raptor projects. In 2017–2022 he was contracted by a government agency to survey and monitor the nests of threatened raptors. He has written around 150 papers and several books or book chapters, mainly on raptors, including field guides to Australian raptors and owls, and monographs on the Australasian eagles and Australian falcons. He edited the journal Australian Field Ornithology for 32 years, and the BirdLife Australia Raptor Group's newsletter Boobook for stints of 10 and 15 years.

Follow along on the included transcript.