Bird Profile- Brother the Peregrine

Since we are in anticipation of the impending yearly fall migration, I thought I'd share a photo of our resident peregrine falcon Brother who resides at the Miami Science Museum's Falcon Batchelor Bird of Prey Center. As evidenced by the photo above, Brother suffers from a prior injury to his left wing rendering him unable to be released back into the wild.

Every year peregrine falcons make the annual journey from their spring/summer homes in the Arctic tundra of Canada down into South America. These amazing migratory routes bring them straight down through the heart of downtown Miami. While it may seem strange, peregrines are frequently seen in the heart of many downtown areas of Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, and multiple other locales across the country.

An interesting blog to follow can be found here http://frgroup.frg.org/2009/09/2009-southern-cross-peregrine-migration.html. The Southern Cross peregrine project actively monitors migrating falcons every year giving enthusiasts such as myself a day by day snapshot into how much ground these birds cover in a day and what I find most interesting: how some birds will follow the same routes year after year which follow one route down and another back, completing a full circle almost.

Brother was one of those typical first year falcons that did not complete his journey as many first year fledglings do not. It is an estimate that 75% of our peregrine patients are 1st year raptors. The migration is a perilous journey and one can only imagine how many near misses and perils are faced by the time these birds make it to Miami.

Hopefully this year will be a good one and we will return them all back to their journey. In the meantime, I sit with Brother and we both look up awaiting their arrival.