Earlier this year we received a call from an individual claiming to have rescued a Peregrine falcon from a busy intersection of downtown Buffalo. The caller claimed that the bird was "just sitting" in the center of the road at Main and Court streets, while traffic zoomed perilously by. Let me just say that on more than one occasion we received calls from the general public, who misidentify a species. Baby hawks turn out to be baby pigeons. Another time, an Osprey turned out to be a piebald pigeon, and once before a caller swore that they had a young peregrine that turned out to be...yep, you guessed it, a pigeon. 

So why should this be any different, we first joked. Well so much for "crying wolf" or Peregrine as the case may be. This time, when Shari Downing emerged from her vehicle and pulled a large birdcage out behind her, inside I could see that this proved to indeed be, an immature Peregrine falcon. Not only was this a Peregrine, but it had a federal leg band on it. It happened to be one of the young Peregrines from the government’s annual breeding program. We were informed that the bird was named Icarus by the staff monitoring the breeding activities. Icarus had apparently fledged prematurely and could not fly back up to the rooftops or ledges of the tall, downtown buildings. We also learned that this same bird was rescued once before earlier that same day and returned to the hacking platform on the ledge.

 After consultation with the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), and a Veterinary exam by Dr. Liane O’Hora, it was determined by the DEC that Messinger Woods would provide care for this most majestic bird for the next week or so. Once Icarus had been sufficiently hydrated, and began eating on his own, we moved him from my home to Margie Hanrahan’s house, since she had the largest available home flight cage. It was now Margie’s goal to monitor his progress. We were all waiting for Icarus to demonstrate the ability to fly straight up to the highest perch with one attempt. During this time, Margie was in constant daily contact with the DEC. We were all very hopeful that he would soon make that first flight straight up ... because time was of the essence. If its siblings were to fly out of the area with their parents, then returning Icarus to his family would be almost impossible. He still needed the care and hunting instruction from his natural parents, if survival were possible. Luck and quality care, but very limited human contact, proved successful. After a few days, Icarus flew in one attempt to the highest perch. The following morning, Margie and Icarus met with the government officials at the top of one of downtown Buffalo’s tallest buildings. He was released and flew like a champ ... giving him the opportunity to reunite with his family. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and stared in wonderment as this beautiful bird flew off, hopefully to someday help his species increase their numbers.

The Peregrine Falcon

Peregrine Falcons are considered raptors. Hawks, falcons, owls, eagles, and osprey are all raptors. The word "raptor" means to seize with claws. Unlike hawks, falcons do not typically kill their prey with their feet. While falcons use their feet to stun and grasp their prey, they actually have a notch on each side of their hooked beaks, which they use to kill their prey by cervical dislocation. 

Peregrine falcons are about the size of a large crow. To hunt a bird in flight, they will climb high in the sky above their quarry. They then will fold their wings against their body and literally free fall in the direction of the hunted bird. This free fall is called a stoop. As they plummet at speeds of between 100 to 200 mph, they develop a tremendous amount of striking power. Once the victim is reached, the Peregrine will extend its open feet and strike the intended target with a devastating blow from above. The victim is instantly stunned or killed. As it begins to tumble toward the ground the Peregrine will usually intercept it in the air and carry it off to a safe platform where it will dispatch it with its beak before eating. Due to DDT, and other related pesticides, the numbers of this species had diminished by 80% to 90% of their total species in the 1960’s. These birds are naturally a cliff-dwelling species that have now adapted to using high rise building and skyscraper ledges for nesting and roosting. Pigeons that dwell in and around our cities provide much of their diets today. William Burch, who is involved with the peregrine program, supplied the following information to us:

In 1970, Dr. Tom Cade at Cornell University developed a captive breeding program to re-establish the species. Similar programs had been started in Canada and Europe. In 1972, the use of DDT was banned in the United States. Because of these efforts to bring the Peregrine back from the brink of extinction, today along the eastern region over 150 re-established pairs are producing about 100 young each year in the wild.

A captive-bred ancestor of Icarus was a female hatched at Wainwright, Alberta in June of 1993 and released at Killarney Provincial Park, 250 miles north of Buffalo, on August 1, 1993. She was later found dead on April 5^th, 1999. Mr. Burch also informed us that today there are 30 breeding pairs of Peregrine falcons in NY State.

Here are some post release excerpts from Mr. Burch’s report to the DEC:

"The young male peregrine was brought to the Statler about 8 am on Tuesday, 26 June by Margie Hanrahan, of the Messinger Woods Staff. She, Kandel and I took it to the Statler roof.The bird walked out of the carrier (allowing some photographs), then flew north 925 feet, landed on the roof of the Federal, or Huron, Building which is on the north side of Huron, just west of Delaware.It sat on the flat roof among the cooling equipment. Soon it moved out of sight. On Saturday, June 30, I could see all four of the peregrines at one time."

By the time you read this, hopefully Icarus will have successfully migrated in October to Central or South America. Messinger Woods would like to thank Mark Kandel of the DEC and William Burch for allowing us the privilege and opportunity to play a part in this birds’ re-introduction back into the wild.