Falcon Finds a Home on Capital High-Rises

Red Hunt was walking to work near the state Capitol one morning when he almost stepped on the severed head of a duck lying on the sidewalk.

On closer inspection, Hunt could see that it was the head of a teal duck, one of a wild variety not commonly found in a downtown area.

So he picked up the bird’s head, tucked it under his arm so he would not startle his co-workers, and rode up the elevator to his office at the Department of Fish and Game, where he is chief of the Wildlife Management Division.

“It was unusual to see a duck head,” he recalled. “It was even more unusual to see a teal. The question then was, how did the head get there?”

The mystery was soon solved.

Hunt was talking on the telephone in his 12th-floor office when a rare peregrine falcon swooped past his window. Grabbing his binoculars, Hunt rushed outside and discovered that the falcon had taken up residence on top of the 16-story building.

Work Comes Home to Roost

For Hunt and his fellow employees, their work had come home to roost.

The peregrine falcon, one of a critically endangered species that preys on other birds, had picked as its home the building that houses the Department of Fish and Game and its governmental parent, the Resources Agency, both of which are responsible for protecting endangered species.

Also coincidental, a band on the falcon’s leg indicated that it was raised and set free by a Santa Cruz-based scientific organization that is licensed and partially financed by the Department of Fish and Game.

“It’s kind of become a mascot around here,” said Terrence M. Eagan, Resources Agency undersecretary. “There are only about 200 we know of in the state of California, and one of them decides to come here and live with us.”

On the roof of the Resources Building, state workers found evidence that the falcon had eaten more than just the duck--there was a small pile of pigeon feet and bird bones.

First sighted in September, the bird has been seen frequently in downtown Sacramento, often sitting high on the Resources Building or at the top of the nearby 17-story towers that house the Health Services and Social Services departments. Last week, a lobbyist reported seeing the bird on the state Capitol itself.

“It’s been pretty exciting,” said Dave Dick, a Fish and Game employee who has gone to great lengths to photograph the falcon. “It will use any of these tall structures as a good perch to keep an eye out for prey.”

Downtown L.A.

It is not the first time a peregrine falcon has made a tall building its home. Three breeding pairs of peregrines have settled on skyscrapers in the Los Angeles area, including one well-publicized pair that nests at the top of the 38-story Union Bank Building in downtown Los Angeles.

The six birds are among 17 falcons set free in urban parts of Los Angeles County since 1981 by the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group as part of its effort to regenerate the species.

The peregrine falcon, which generally nests on high cliffs in the wild, prefers to take its prey on the wing. Sometimes known as the “duck hawk,” it swoops down at speeds of more than 200 m.p.h., slams into its victim with its talons and then plucks the stunned bird out of the air before it hits the ground.

In urban areas, the peregrine falcon has easily adjusted to a steady diet of pigeons, which are in plentiful supply year-round.

Considered the aristocrat of predatory birds, the peregrine falcon was nearly wiped out in the 1960s by the insecticide DDT. The chemical, which is passed up through the food chain, causes the falcon to lay fragile, thin-shelled eggs, making reproduction nearly impossible.

In 1970, a state survey found only two nesting pairs of peregrines in California. Today, there are 83 known breeding pairs in the state, largely because of efforts by humans to raise young falcons and release them.

Although the falcon has made a slow comeback since DDT was banned in 1972, enough of the pesticide remains in the environment to pose reproductive problems for the falcon and other predatory birds, particularly in such areas as the central coast of California, said Ron Jurek, a wildlife biologist with the Department of Fish and Game.

The Sacramento falcon is one of 532 falcons set free by the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group in California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, said Brian Walton, coordinator of the program.

But unlike the Los Angeles falcons, the Sacramento falcon was not released near the high-rises where it now roosts.

Released 100 Miles Away

Walton said he believes that the bird is a fledgling that was one of a number released about 100 miles away from Sacramento earlier this year in the mountains along the coast of Northern California and in the Sierra Nevada.

The bird, however, could have come from even farther away because falcons are known to travel long distances. In fact, Walton said, the name peregrine means “wanderer” in Latin.

Sacramento can offer the falcon a good supply of food--not only pigeons but ducks and other birds that inhabit the nearby farmland and marshes. However, it is likely the bird will move on to other territory, especially when the weather turns hot in the summer, Walton said.

The sex of the Sacramento falcon has not been determined, but Hunt, who found the duck head, believes that it is a female. Females, with a 30-inch wing span, are larger than males and substantially larger than the pigeons they eat.

“The fact that she picked the Resources Building is great,” Hunt said. “I would hope that she would pick up a male and come back to nest.”