Celebrating Thirty Years of Peregrines

This 21-day-old peregrine chick now has identifying
leg bands. 

Today, three peregrine chicks - two female chicks and one male - were banded at the historic 33 S. 6th Street/City Center/MultiFoods Tower in downtown Minneapolis. 

This site is historically very important to the Midwest peregrine falcon restoration project.  It was the first urban site to host a “hack box” of peregrine chicks, and the first Minnesota site since the 1960s to produce a wild-hatched peregrine that would fledge successfully. In 1985, Dr. Harrison “Bud” Tordoff and Dr. Patrick T. Redig, co-founder of The Raptor Center, approached the building management team at 33 South 6th Street to inquire about putting a “hack box" (also known as a "release box") on the roof. This release box would house young captive-bred peregrine chicks that would be the start of a reintroduction of the species.

The breeding adults were both at this site last year.  The male is Triumph, b/r 58/P, a 2013 hatch from the Mayo Building in Rochester, MN.  The female, who had previously been at another site in downtown Minneapolis, is b/r 22/X, from a building on the East Bank of the University of Minnesota.

TRC staff provide leadership, technical advice, and administrative support for the Midwest Peregrine Society, which includes 13 Midwest states and two Canadian provinces.

We thank the building management for their generosity in allowing this work to continue.

The history of the Midwest peregrine restoration project, as well as a searchable database for the public to look up individual birds, sites and states, is here.  

Jackie Fallon, Midwest Peregrine Society

The arrow points to where the nest box is
located.

TRC Interpretive Naturalist Mike Billington and Artemis
the education winged ambassador peregrine falcon.