Peregrine falcon pairs expecting

Nebraska’s two famous peregrine falcon pairs are not only living and flying high, they’re also expecting.

A falcon pair has produced a clutch of five eggs in a nest box on the 28th floor of the Woodmen Tower in downtown Omaha. And for the seventh consecutive year, a pair of peregrine falcons has produced eggs in a nest box outside the 18th floor of the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln.

Female peregrines lay three to five eggs in two- to three-day intervals that are incubated for about 33 days. The Omaha and Lincoln eggs are expected to hatch in early May.

Hera, the Omaha female, has produced a clutch of five eggs. She and her mate, Zeus, take shifts incubating. Four of Hera’s five eggs last year hatched.

In Lincoln, a falcon pair was incubating three eggs at midweek, said Joel Jorgensen, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission’s non-game bird manager.

The male, who was incubating the eggs, did not leave the nest and remained over the eggs while Jorgensen checked the nest. With the leg band 19/K, the male has been at the Capitol since 2003. The identity of the female is not yet known.

Lincoln’s peregrine falcon pairs have successfully produced chicks for five of the past six years.

The peregrine falcon population nationally plummeted in the 1950s and the species was placed on the endangered list. Scientists bred peregrines in captivity and released them into the wild.

Some of these birds migrated to skyscrapers in eastern cities. As cliff dwellers, peregrine falcons flourished in urban settings with tall buildings. An abundance of pigeons and starlings supplied the falcons’ diet.

Biologists noticed this adaptation to city buildings and began releasing falcons on urban rooftops. The Nebraska Peregrine Falcon Project released a pair of peregrine falcons atop the Woodmen Tower in 1988.

More than 50 falcon chicks have hatched there.

Contact the writer:

402-444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com

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