Peregrine Falcon

While not a backyard bird, this week’s bird is, perhaps, the most impressive bird on the planet. The Peregrine Falcon is capable of reaching a top speed of 210 mph in a dive and are considered the fastest of all birds. Their name means “great wanderer” as they can travel vast distances in a relatively short amount of time.

Back in the early 90s, we had a pair of these magnificent birds show up and start nesting on a cupola located on the 22nd floor of the Commerce Bank building in downtown Kansas City. This a trend we were seeing at the time of these magnificent birds of prey finding nesting sites on large urban structures. The conservation community had tried reintroduction projects with the Peregrines on large rocky cliffs with very little success. The primary nemesis in the wild are Great Horned Owls who eat the young ones before they can fledge. One great advantage of urban nesting (aside from all of the pigeons) is little or no Great Horned Owls to deal with.

The young bird pictured on our Facebook Page was banded on May 23, 2017 from the nest located on the American Century building on the plaza. This bird has spent the last two winters hanging around the Commerce Bank building in downtown Dallas, TX. Pretty cool stuff. Our Missouri Department of Conservation has two different nest cameras set up in the Kansas City region. It is a little early, but you can check back in on them from time to time to watch the whole nesting process.

Mark McKellar

Bird of the Week: March 18,2019