WARREN (WWJ) – Many Metro Detroiters have taken a liking to checking out the pair of peregrine falcons nesting atop the GM Tech Center in Warren.
Now they’ve got two new falcons to keep up with.
The falcons, known as Fred and Wilma, hatched two chicks last month, Pebbles and Betty. The chicks were banded on Monday, June 5, an event captured on the Warren Peregrine Falcons Facebook page.
Pebbles was first to be banded with black over blue, 21/AE and fish and wildlife band: 1947-33122.
Betty was next to get her “new jewelry,” USFW Band: 1947-33123.
Birds are banded to help track both scientific research and management and conservation projects, according to the US Geological Survey. Individual identification of birds makes it possible to study dispersal and migration, behavior and social structure, life-span and survival rate, reproductive success and population growth, according to the USGS.
The falcons were then returned to the nest on top of the GM building, where Metro Detroiters can follow them with a 24/7 live web cam
Earlier this spring Kim Morse-Harvey with Warren Peregrine Falcons told WWJ’s Brian Fisher on the Daily J the peregrine falcon is “an amazing raptor.”
“They fly over 40 mph and they can go into what we call a stoop,” she said. “The way they catch their prey is they go really high up in the air and then they bend their wings back like an airplane, basically and they stoop in the sky. Once they get close to their bird, they close their talons and knock their bird out of the sky,” Morse-Harvey said.
That stoop can reach up to 200 mph.
While the nest box in Warren gives us a chance to check in on the birds, that’s not why it was originally placed. The peregrine was once an endangered species, thanks to pesticides on crops.
But now that the falcon population has recovered, Pebbles and Betty are banded and starting their lives.
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