Ann Arbor's state-endangered peregrine falcons are the proud parents of three new baby chicks that share the family home: A nest perched atop the University Hospital.
The peregrine family is evidence the birds - which mate for life and have been spotted around Ann Arbor since 2006 - have accepted a nesting box built on top of the hospital in the last year, according to an article posted about the falcon family on the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology’s website.
U-M and Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials spotted the baby peregrines on May 23.
The adult falcons like to hang around various tall buildings around the U-M campus, especially the 192-foot tall Burton Tower, where they may have nested in the past, according to Janet Hinshaw, the bird division collection manager for the U-M Museum of Zoology.
But conditions there were less than ideal for family life, Hinshaw told AnnArbor.com in 2010. Storm water would disturb the nest, and once she found a cracked egg at the base of Burton Tower.
After the latest round of renovations began on the 1936 landmark tower in late 2010, DNR officials and others collaborated to lure the falcons away from the tower with nesting boxes, including one atop the hospital and another on the roof of North Quad.
The effort worked. According to the zoology website, the chicks looked to be about 9 days old on May 23.
That means the female falcon likely laid her eggs around April 10, and the chicks hatched around May 14. They may be able to leave the nest by the end of June.
According to the DNR, the use of the chemical DDT in pesticides almost eradicated the species. But due to the ban of the chemical and decades of reintroduction efforts, the birds were removed from the federal government's endangered species list in 1999, but remain a federally protected. State law still lists the peregrine as an endangered species.
Ann Arbor.com
