A Flight of Fancy Falcons

Story and Photos by Jennifer Bradbury

For the second spring in a row, the North Orange County Community College District Anaheim campus falcons are back to raise a new family of chicks. In March, momma Peregrine falcon laid four beautiful, speckled eggs, and in April those hatched into four fussy, fabulous little chicks.

Baby falcons are more than a handful – literally. Newly hatched, the little birds weighed in at less than two ounces. At three weeks they're about eight inches long and putting on weight fast along with coats of downy white feathers. Momma and poppa have been busy hunting to keep the babies fed and taking turns keeping watch on the nest.

Our volunteer falcon expert, Craig Feltman, stopped in to check out the babies and pronounced them all healthy-looking and growing according to schedule. He tells us that we likely have two male chicks (identifiable by their rounder heads) and two females (their heads are more wedge shaped). He also provided us with some fascinating facts about falcons.

• A full-grown falcon can exert more than 40 pounds of pressure per square inch – per toe! The babies already have impressively large feet, but they're going to be downright intimidating soon. The falcon's talons are a vital part of the way it hunts and grasps prey. Their notched beaks also help with hunting.
• Peregrine falcons can fly more than 200 miles per hour. Because of this they have naturally formed baffles (called tubercles) in their nostrils, not dissimilar to the man-made ones in jet engines. The baffles control air pressure to protect the falcons from lung damage and embolism while flying at high speeds.
• The number of eggs a female Peregrine falcon lays can depend on how plentiful food was during the early mating season. A four-egg clutch is normal-sized, so momma had plenty to eat before she and poppa started this season's family.

Falcon Conservation

Momma and poppa are Anatum Peregrine falcons. There are more than 20 different sub-species of Peregrines, but the Anatums are especially common in North America and in urban areas. This is partly due to conservation efforts that began in the 1970s after the species nearly became extinct due to exposure to DDT pesticide, Feltman said. Smaller birds, which falcons hunt, ate seeds from plants treated with pesticide, and the chemical then made its way to the falcons where it caused weak and dangerously delicate eggs.

In the 1970s falconers and researchers launched a major effort to save the Peregrine falcon, including dedicated researchers repelling down buildings and cliffsides to retrieve fragile eggs from Peregrine nests so they could be cared for in incubators. Artificial nests called Hack boxes were set up on rooftops and building ledges in urban areas. There the chicks could be fed through chutes until they were mature enough to go off on their own.

Because Anatum falcons generally stay within 100 miles of their original nest, this led to a proliferation of Peregrine falcons in urban areas. Peregrine falcons were removed from the endangered species list in California in 2009 and are now flourishing.

Life moves fast, especially if you're a Peregrine falcon. By five to six weeks of age, our baby birds will be out and flying on their own. So, keep an eye on NOCCCD's falcon cam to keep up with the babies. They grow up so fast!

A special thanks to our volunteer falcon expert Craig Feltman. Craig is an active falconer and has been a passionate advocate for these magnificent birds since he was 13 years old.