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SEASONAL CHANGES IN RAPTOR NUMBERS AT ARMIDALE, NEW SOUTH WALES


Transect counts and other observations in 1980 and 1984-1985 revealed a winter low and summer peak in raptor numbers and species diversity at Armidale (N.S.W.). Most of the common species were more numerous in summer than in winter; literature data indicate that these species are correspondingly more numerous in winter than in summer in some climatically less extreme areas in eastern and south-eastern Australia. Some species at Armidale appear to conform to Newton's (1979) movement categories: (a) breeding adults sedentary, surplus birds dispersive (Wedge-tailed Eagle Aquila audax, Little Eagle Hieraaetus morphnoides, some Brown Falcons Falco berigora and Australian Kestrels Falco cenchroides); (b) local movements (some Collared Sparrowhawks Accipiter cirrhocephalus, Peregrine Falcons Falco peregrinus and Brown Falcons ; (c) migrants (breeding: some Brown Goshawks Accipiter fasciatus and Australian Kestrels; wintering: Marsh Harrier Circus aeruginosus); (d) nomadic or irruptive (Black-shouldered Kite Elanus notatus, Black Kite Milvus migrans).

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