This month-old Peregrine falcon fell to the ground in the Loop, apparently during its first flight. It was taken to the Field Museum, where bird experts determined it was healthy enough to return to its family’s nest. (Credit: Field Museum)
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CHICAGO (CBS) – A young Peregrine falcon was back in the family nest on Thursday, a day after falling to the ground in the Loop, apparently while learning to fly.
WBBM Newsradio’s John Cody reports a restaurant worker found the young bird, sitting listless in the alley behind the Walgreens at 151 N. State St. on Wednesday.
Police scooped up the falcon and took the bird to the Field Museum, which had banded the young Peregrine for tracking.
Field Museum assistant bird curator John Bates said it wasn’t the first case of a young falcon falling to the ground, and won’t be the last.
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio’s John Cody reports
“This is actually the first bird of the season, among the nests that have been monitored, where one of these birds has come down,” Bates said. It happens every year.
“The Peregrine falcons begin to jump, and our phones start ringing, as people want to know whether it’s okay, and what’s going on.”
An adult male Peregrine falcon watches over its nest after a baby falcon was returned to the nest, after falling to the ground during its first flight. (Credit: Field Museum)
Field Museum ornithologist Mary Hennon donned her hardhat and returned the month-old Peregrine falcon to his parents’ 30th floor nest near Millennium Park.
It wasn’t just because she went up so high that Hennon donned a hardhat while returning the baby falcon to its nest.
“The defense of the adults is to swoop at you, and they can pull their talons into a fist, and drop their foot as they fly past, and they’ll rap you in the head,” she said. “So you always wear a hardhat or a bike helmet as protection.”
She said the falcon will be fine, and should do better on his second flight.
