New Banded Male Falcon From Eastern US Visits Nest

Kalamazoo Male Peregrine
3/3/2015

For the last few years, there had been two adult Peregrine Falcons in downtown Kalamazoo: a banded female (Rebecca) and an unbanded male.  Because of the band number, we know the female is Rebecca and that she was hatched in South Bend. 

These adults successfully raised four young in 2014.  Astute Kalamazoo Peregrine Falcon watchers started to notice a change in behavior of the adult resident birds in November of 2014.  On February 21, there was footage from the nest camera that confirmed the presence of a male Peregrine with leg bands. 

There is an international protocol in North America for colored leg bands on Peregrine Falcons, which indicates the origin or subspecies for chicks banded in the nest.  This new bird has a red and black band on the left leg and a pink aluminum band on the right leg.  The red/black combination tells us that the bird is from the Eastern United States. 

The aluminum band is the US Fish and Wildlife Service band.  Now, we just need to see the band numbers and we can look up information about this male to see where and when he was banded.

Tags: Male Peregrine Falcon