Teresa Ely is a raptor biologist and a North American Bander Council (NABC) Certified Raptor Bander Trainer. She currently serves as the GGRO’s Banding Manager. Teresa completed her Master’s Degree in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2016, studying American Kestrel biology using count and banding data from migration sites across North America.
A San Francisco native, Teresa began working as a raptor handler and leading educational programs at the San Francisco Zoo at age 14. After graduating from Northern Arizona University with a B.S. in Zoology, she returned to the Bay Area to join the GGRO as an intern in 2008. Following her internship, Teresa went on to trap and band raptors during fall migration with a variety of other programs including ProNatura in Veracruz, Mexico, HawkWatch International at their Goshute Mountains and Manzano Mountains sites, and the Hitchcock Nature Center in Honey Creek, Iowa.
Teresa is an active member of the Raptor Research Foundation and currently serves as a co-chair of the Early Career Raptor Researcher (ECRR) Committee. She also founded and runs the Women in Raptor Research and Conservation group. Teresa is passionate about all things raptors and she is particularly interested in using banding data from long-term raptor migration studies to inform our knowledge of raptor ecology.
