It never ceases to amaze me that there are peregrine falcons living in major downtown areas. Today, the girls and I went to see a peregrine falcon banding.
The reason the birds are banded is for identification and monitoring purposes. The bands are pretty close to clunky bracelets but don’t interfere with the falcons ability to survive.
At three weeks of age the legs of the young birds have stopped growing in width so the federal and state identification bands can be put on their legs without causing any problems.
If fact, that is my daughter helping Diana Malas, the wildlife biologist put a band on one of the birds.
While the banding is happening inside, the adults are outside (thank goodness) are none to happy with having their young taken from the nest. The two adult birds are both unbanded which means there is no history on where the birds are from or their age. This is a bit different than usual because most peregrines that find their way to Ohio cities are banded.
The bands have a letter number combination on a varied colored band. This combination of letters, numbers, and color coding makes it easier for wildlife biologist to identify the adult birds via the use of a spotting scope and an appreciable amount of patience.
The Cincinnati nest isn’t online due to a few factors (no available wiring or wifi–that is unless someone wants to make a donation) but there are other nests in the state that you can watch here is the link to the list.
If you’d like to learn more about the birds click here.
~~ Oh, and my young biologist reports that the young’s feathers are super soft and fluffy. Just in case you were wondering.