Luke Miller and Micah Glover of USDA Wildlife Services and Joe DeBold (left to right) examine the young falcon. Courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation.
Surprised biologists who found a young Peregrine falcon downtown this week had a chance to examine and band it at the Anita B. Gorman Discovery Center at 47th and Troost.
The Peregrine, hatched in a nest at the Commerce Tower downtown, flew through an open widow at the office building on Tuesday.
The Missouri Department of Conservation says the Peregrine nesting season was almost over this spring when biologists discovered a pair of falcons at Commerce Tower had hatched young birds. Commerce Towner is the site of the department’s first falcon restoration release in 1991. The first successful nest was on a ledge there in 1997, but the birds had not used the tower for the past two years.
Hence the surprise when a young male Peregrine flew in. The conservation department says the bird was rescued by Joe DeBold, MDC urban wildlife biologist, and Luke Miller and Micah Glover of the USDA Wildlife Services division.
“It was cool to get to see that bird,” DeBold said. “It was in really good shape.”
The rescue team took the bird to the Midtown Discovery Center. After an examination, they attached a leg band that will help them track the falcon. They said that will be helpful in tracking movement and survival, especially because the nest at Commerce Towner is not accessible to the experts.
Peregrine falcons, endangered in Missouri, originally nested on cliffs and bluffs. Since restoration began, they have nested at several power plants near Kansas City. They also have a successful nest at American Century’s office building near the Country Club Plaza.
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