Beth Fife tried her best to soothe five peregrine falcon chicks making their way through a medical check and banding on Thursday as a roomful of onlookers snapped photos.
"It helps calm them down," said Fife, a wildlife conservation officer, after gently blowing into their faces.
The chicks -- three females and two males -- were born in April in a nest on the 37th floor of the Gulf Tower, Downtown, and will soon leave. The nest is one of two in Pittsburgh belonging to the Urban Falcon Recovery Project. The other is on the Cathedral of Learning in Oakland.
Falcons are territorial, said Steven J. Sarro, director of animal programs at the National Aviary.
"The Downtown birds stay here; the Oakland birds stay there," said Sarro, 52, of the North Side.
A total of 10 chicks hatched last year, and nine this year, Sarro said. The leg bands allow individual birds to be tracked and identified so their population can be monitored.
The peregrine falcon project is sponsored by the National Aviary, Pennsylvania Game Commission, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, University of Pittsburgh, Gulf Tower, Make-a-Wish Foundation and private donors. People can watch the chicks via real-time streaming video and sound online at
www.aviary.org/falcon.
The peregrine falcon was one of the first species listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1974. Although their recovery went well enough to remove them from the national list in 1999, they are considered endangered in Pennsylvania. The state has about 27 nesting sites.
"Hopefully, we'll work ourselves out of a job here," Sarro said.
