San Jose City Hall falcon chicks: It's three males and a female
If falcons wore clothes, the baby chicks atop San Jose City Hall would be wearing three blue sweaters and one pink.
In his annual trek up to a ledge outside the 18th floor of the downtown building Thursday morning, UC Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group biologist Glenn Stewart banded the legs of the peregrine falcon chicks in an effort to study them in years to come. And he also determined their sex: three males and one female.
Stewart is thrilled that the Bay Area has an "all-time high" of 30 known peregrine falcon pairs roaming the skies, and he said there are about 250 known falcons in the state. That is actually not a low number overall, said Stewart, reminding people that these falcons are at the "top of the food chain" and eat hundreds of smaller birds each year.
Several falcon lovers and city hall workers came to witness the early morning event, where Stewart used a rope to scale along the wall of the City Hall building to get close to the chicks as their parents, named Clara and Esteban Colbert, squawked and yakked angrily as he neared their brood. One homeless man, who didn't want to give his name, marveled at this urban birding experience.
"This is natural beauty," he said. "It's amazing."
As for the four babies, San Jose children have already been invited to name the young falcons, and the winning names will be announced May 6.
This is mama falcon Clara's fifth nesting season in Silicon Valley. The popular falcon family, first spotted at City Hall in 2007, and their annual mating and birthing rituals, are tracked by devoted followers and can be followed on a live webcam at
www.scpbrg.org.
The chicks are expected to learn to fly some time in the third week of May.
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