Peregrine Falcon Coordination

Weekly coordination during the nesting season with the KY Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources will be undertaken to minimize impacts to the peregrine falcons nesting on the bridge.
A pair of Peregrine Falcons has been nesting at an artificial nest box on Pier 8 since 2002. Due to expected disruption during construction, the nesting box was moved on January 27, 2011 to pier 5, which will not be impacted by construction in 2011. The picture at left shows workers lowering the falcon nesting box as they prepared to move it to another pier. Click here to read more about the relocation of the falcon nesting box.

Update, May 25, 2011

One of the new falcon chicks either fell or was blown off of the pier on Monday, May 23.

The chick, which cannot yet fly, survived the fall and was found the next morning by Walsh Construction

Company workers. The chick is being cared for by the Ky. Dept. of Fish & Wildlife Resources and will be put back in the nest on May 26.

Update, May 10, 2011

The nesting pair successfully followed the relocated nesting box
and produced four chicks, two male, two female. The chicks are
approximately 23-days-old.

Photo courtesy of the Kentucky Dept. of Fish & Wildlife Resources

On May 10, 2010, workers from the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources placed bands on the chicks so that the birds’ progress can be tracked. While the bands are not electronic, they are color coded and numbered allowing officials to track the falcons’ progress, productivity and survival. The birds are periodically monitored from the ground by workers using a “spotting scope.”

The photo show a bulge in the throat of the chicks called a “crop.” The fact that it is so conspicuous shows the chicks were recently fed. Overall, the chicks appear healthy and well fed.

Photo courtesy of the Kentucky Dept. of Fish & Wildlife Resources

Workers had to move quickly today to band the birds. The front portion of the nesting box was blocked to prevent the nesting pair from entering the area where the chicks were being banded. “The parents will put on a good threatening show,” said KDFWR Avian Biologist Kate Heyden, “But they usually don’t do any harm.”

It’s difficult to band birds once they’ve left the nest, so the banding has to take place when the chicks are young and still cannot fly. The chicks grow fast and are expected to leave the nest at around 40-days of age.

Falcons have nested on the Milton-Madison Bridge since 2002. Peregrine falcons are no longer on the endangered species list, but are still federally protected; it is illegal to harm or destroy a falcon or its nest.

Peregrine falcons are rare in Kentucky; there are only 13 known nesting pairs statewide. They are strong hunters, diving at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour to prey on other birds in mid-flight.

The nesting box eventually will be moved again, likely in early-2012. The pier where the box sits now is not being reused as part of the bridge project.

The Indiana Department of Transportation and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet committed to relocating the nesting box as part of the project’s environmental process.