VIRGINIA BEACH
The peregrine falcon chick born on the Armada Hoffler building at Town Center died Tuesday after crashing into one of the building’s windows.
The building maintenance staff found the female chick on a ledge on the 20th floor, said Reese Lukei, who has been monitoring the nest for the Center for Conservation Biology in Williamsburg.
The peregrine, which flew for the first time days ago, charged into a reflective window, Lukei said.
“Peregrines are very aggressive creatures, and apparently she thought she was charging another young peregrine,” he said.
The birds can fly at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour.
The youngster, hatched May 4, was the first chick known to be born in Virginia Beach since the peregrine population declined in the 1970s from the effects of DDT.
Peregrines are still on Virginia’s list of threatened species.
Lukei and Bryan Watts, director of the center, banded the chick when it was less than a month old. They had hoped to track some of its movements as an adult.
Mary Reid Barrow,
barrow1@cox.nethttp://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/pilotonline.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/b/e1/be1ee25b-20eb-50e9-b627-4c022023d175/5769c9bad39db.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C801 (PIC) Just before she crashed
Fly Free
She was the only chic at this nest!
