Two of the peregrine falcon chicks that delayed a Downtown construction project have been placed in a cliffside nest in north-central Pennsylvania.
The state Game Commission reported Wednesday that the birds seem to have been accepted by their new parents and siblings.
“The young birds’ best prospects are with wild adults, so fostering these relocated chicks into an active nest in a wild setting, with young of similar age, was the best option available,” Dan Brauning, Game Commission wildlife diversity division chief, said in a statement.
Mr. Brauning personally placed the chicks in the nest.
Instead of nesting at Gulf Tower, this year an adult female nested in an air shaft near a rooftop on Third Avenue, Downtown. She laid eggs and they hatched there.
In late April, construction began on student living quarters in an adjacent Fourth Avenue building and the Game Commission ordered the contractor to stop exterior work until the nestlings could be resettled.
Dori and Louie, as peregrine watchers called the female and accompanying male adult peregrine, perched near their Third Avenue nest for a few days and then flew off. They continue to live Downtown.
The birds’ usual Gulf Tower nesting site is surveilled by a live-streaming camera owned by the National Aviary. The resulting media presence has made the birds local celebrities, and peregrine watchers were outraged that the chicks were to be moved to accommodate a developer’s schedule.
Nevertheless, the contractor complied with the directives of wildlife managers, and the Game Commission and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service granted permits for the removal of the chicks.
The birds were taken from their nests by Game Commission staff and delivered to the Humane Animal Rescue Wildlife Center, a wildlife rehabilitation center near Verona.
“After the care received in rehabilitation, the young were capable of tearing food provided to them, and in the wild they’ll learn to hunt with their foster siblings,” Mr. Brauning said.
Two of the four chicks died at the rehab facility. The cause of their deaths was unknown, but the Game Commission said one chick had parasitic lesions on its lungs and it is possible both chicks died from infections. The Game Commission said chick mortality is not uncommon, and about half of all birds die before fledging.
Rachel Handel of the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania said nestling mortality is particularly high among peregrines.
“In a 2008 study of peregrine falcons, it was found that only about one-third of hatched chicks lived to be more than one year old,” she said. “For the study, the birds were followed after fledging the nest and only 37 percent of birds survived one year beyond hatching.”
Generally, she said, nearly 60 percent of peregrine chicks do not make it through the first year. Once they pass that milestone, most peregrines live 12 to 15 years.
Peregrines were taken off the federal Endangered Species List in 1999, but remain protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. In Pennsylvania, the birds are considered endangered and protected by statute under the Game and Wildlife Code.
John Hayes: 412-263-1991, jhayes@post-gazette.com.
First Published: June 21, 2018, 3:28 p.m.
