Peregrine Chicks Find Purchase Atop New York’s Bridges
New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced last week that three healthy peregrine falcon chicks have hatched in their aerie, a specially built nesting box atop the Verrazzano Bridge. The fluffy hatchlings were tagged with identifying bands while their mother soared nearby, 700 feet over the Narrows.
The MTA has placed nesting boxes on bridges around the city. Every year toward the end of May the nests are checked out and any chicks are banded. (Nearby Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge currently has a nest with eggs that are, as of this writing, unhatched.)
“Urban falcons like to nest atop bridges, church steeples and high-rise buildings because they provide an excellent vantage point for hunting prey, including pigeons and small birds,” according to the MTA’s press release announcing the new arrivals.
Farther north, another four peregrine chicks emerged atop the Governor Mario Cuomo Bridge, formerly known as the Tappan Zee. You can spy on these birds via live web cam.
Peregrine falcons were nearly wiped out by the 1960s from pesticides in their food supply and are still listed as endangered in New York. These birds are the fastest animals on earth, as they can reach speeds of over 200 miles per hour when dive-bombing prey. Falcons mate for life and often return to the same nests every year to hatch their young.
Photo credit: Marc A. Hermann / MTA
