Adelaide’s birds of prey will be in the spotlight this autumn, with a new campaign launched in the Adelaide CBD to raise awareness about these amazing top order predators.
The project aims to raise awareness of Adelaide’s majestic birds of prey as well as a much smaller native bird called the tree martin – who’s also a regular snack of our city’s birds of prey.
Green Adelaide Operations Manager Dr Stuart Collard said that raising awareness of these birds is an important step towards rewilding the city.
“Birds of prey are essential to metropolitan Adelaide, they are a sign of a healthy ecosystem, and they hunt and scare away pest species like feral pigeons,” Dr Collard said.
“Adelaideans might not know that our city centre is home to many types of birds of prey – you just need to know where to find them, be patient and keep looking up, as some of them even nest in high rise buildings.
“We hope this awareness campaign will help people connect with our birds of prey, learn about the important role they play in our urban environment and encourage new ways to improve and protect their urban habitat.”
The awareness campaign includes bright, comic styled educational posters and bird-shaped cut-outs of 4 birds of prey including the peregrine falcon, Australian hobby, brown goshawk, and the Australian kestrel, as well as the tree martin, scattered throughout the city.
Dr Collard said that the campaign poses fun questions about the birds with QR codes to help people find the answers.
“By scanning the QR code you’ll find out all you need to know about these birds, where they live, what they eat, how to identify them and what makes them unique and important for our city’s environment,” Dr Collard said.
“We have the fastest bird on the planet living in Adelaide, a bird that can see things invisible to the human eye and a bird that flocks in the thousands to Leigh Street every year.
“The fact that we can witness these amazing birds adapting and thriving in the city is one of the reasons why Adelaide has been named the world’s second National Park City – after London.
“We don’t need to travel far to see and connect with our local wildlife in Adelaide, which is what being a National Park City is all about – everyone, everywhere and everyday can connect with nature for our wellbeing.”
The awareness campaign’s posters and cut-outs can be found in Leigh Street, Peel Street, Adelaide Botanic Gardens, Botanic Park and War Memorial Drive until 30 April.
To learn more about the project visit our birds of prey awareness campaign page.