A juvenile Peregrine falcon totters on a ledge of the Sheraton Centre’s 43rd floor, flapping his downy wings enthusiastically. It is early June and in a few days the young falcon will lose all his white down and finally work up the nerve to leap off that ledge. His first flight will suffer the hazards of transport in a big city: traffic, smog, and collisions.
Perhaps he will miss his landing and hurtle down the chimney of the office building across the street. He may flutter down between buildings and land before startled tourists on the sidewalk. Or, he may sail to safety on an adjacent alcove, a sign he might overcome the 80 per cent mortality rate in a fledgling’s first year of life.
Downtown Toronto seems hardly the place for wildlife to thrive, but the Canadian Peregrine Foundation’s volunteers see a perfect home for the falcons. With a population in recovery from near extinction in the 70s, urban Peregrine falcons substitute cozy hotel ledges and alcoves for the towering cliffs and eyries they prefer in the wild.
Between the two downtown peregrine nests, on the Sheraton Centre and at 18 King St. E., attendant CPF volunteers make sure fallen juvenile peregrines get a second chance to fly. “Last year, we pulled a bird that went down a chimney… 12 stories into a furnace,” said Linda Woods, a dedicated CPF volunteer since 1999. Luckily, after two fearful hours and numerous phone calls, the CPF team opened the furnace door to find a dirty but uninjured juvenile.
But rescue missions are not always easy or successful. After all, “how do you think like a bird?” Woods asked. And when a young falcon is pitted against an active boiler room, rescue may be possible, but survival unlikely.
For the fallen falcon, the heat of the boiler room had burned his talons-his “tools to feed”-and eliminated the possibility of a release. “He succumbed to his injuries a month later,” Woods said. “The quicker we act on it, the chances of survival are higher.”
With the help of CPF volunteers, many peregrines do live to see a winter migration. Some travel as far south as Ecuador. Upon springtime return, peregrines will mate and nest in city centres like their parents before them. In fact, the majority of peregrines in eastern North America have opted for city life rather than country cliff sides. New York city alone is home to 16 pairs of peregrines, 20 nesting pairs of American bald eagles, and is frequented by more than 15 species of raptors.
Though they are strongly territorial birds, the peregrines at the Sheraton Centre and 18 King St. E. are separated by a single kilometre’s distance. Also, the two nesting females share a single male mate, an almost undocumented behaviour.
Mark Nash, executive director of the CPF, believes Peregrine “double timing” has much to do with the plentiful food source in the city, allowing territorial lines to lay closer than in the wild. The constant availability of prey, mostly pigeons, allows settled peregrines to over-winter in the city, rather than attempting migration.
At the same time, human disturbances-from trespassing window-washers to toxic chemicals in the environment-constantly threaten them. Pigeons, though the peregrine’s primary prey, are also the city’s primary pest. Not only are 62 known human diseases transmitted by pigeon poop, pigeon proliferation on city rooftops is a nuisance to building managers and property owners.
Pest control for pigeons includes the potassium-channel blocker 4-aminopyridine, a drug being studied for the treatment of human neurodegenerative diseases. Mixed into pigeon feed, 4-aminopyridine acts as a hallucinogen, inducing erratic behaviour that scares flocks of pigeons away from a building without killing them. Though the drug is only active for 12-18 hours, peregrines and their chicks that ingest contaminated pigeons may die from bioaccumulation of the toxin.
For the CPF, learning and acting on dangers such as 4-aminopyridine top their list of priorities. With their team of educational birds, the CPF tours the public school circuit in the winter months to educate children of the diverse wildlife within their own cities. The CPF also cares for injured peregrines with the help of the University of Guelph’s veterinary facilities. In spring, around 600 CPF volunteers across Canada gather at nests like Toronto’s own Sheraton Centre nest to ensure the safe fledging of juveniles.
With the hustle and bustle of city life, the urban peregrine encounters dangers never imagined. But life in the big city also means we can keep an eye on our wayward neighbours when they take their first leap.
As of March, the University of Guelph will no longer extend charitable veterinary care to injured Peregrine falcons. As a non-for-profit organization, the CPF depends entirely on donations to fund medical care for Peregrine falcons, and you can learn more about their work at at www.peregrine-foundation.ca
