Thursday, February 17, 2000
Downtown falcon lacks mate
Female dies; state officials watch and wait
BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
In her time, Falcar, Cincinnati's ferocious female peregrine falcon, drove off all rivals.
Now, Falcar is dead and fans are hoping her mate, Falcor, will find another consort in the unguarded territory
It's not impossible, said Rick Jasper, an assistant wildlife management supervisor at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Most Ohio peregrines mate and choose nesting sites by mid-March, he said in an interview Wednesday. “We have been very lucky. They have been replaced very quickly elsewhere.”
Mr. Jasper also hopes Falcar's death will explain the years when the Cincinnati pair produced no young. Sometimes, birders didn't even know where Falcar and Falcor nested.
The missing sightings were surprising, Mr. Jasper said. “They can go anywhere they damn please, but they tend to defend their nesting territory.”
Unlike some wounded peregrines reported to ODNR, Mr. Jasper said, the aging Falcar was not the victim of an aggressive intruder or high-speed collision with an unyielding building.
Falcar was “just standing around on the street” shortly before Christmas and wouldn't fly.
Mr. Jasper said he was told that an alert Cincinnati police officer called Raptor Inc., whose members rescue and rehabilitate birds of prey.
They took Falcar to suburban veterinarian Peter Hill, whose blood test found a dangerously low white cell count. Falcar was sent to a raptor center at the University of Minneso ta.
Falcar died recently there, and the initial diagnosis was an ovarian tumor, which, Mr. Jasper said, could explain the erratic breeding and nesting behavior. He's waiting for the final report.
Falcar was hatched and banded in Indianapolis in 1991, named by schoolchildren, and “showed up” in Cincinnati in 1992-1993. Falcor was hatched and banded in Cincinnati in 1990 and named by schoolchildren here.
The similarity of their names was serendipitous, he said.
Typically, falcons will protect a square mile, and that means all of the downtown tall buildings were Falcar and Falcor's nesting ground.
Mr. Jasper knew of no other pair here, but tall apartment buildings upriver and bridges might attract other peregrines.
Peregrines were introduced downtown as part of a state recovery program to boost their numbers. They feed on pigeons, and it was hoped tall buildings would resemble rocky cliffs that are the birds' natural habitat.
Falcar and Falcor nested at the Fourth and Vine Tower, but bird-watchers lost track in 1997.
Peregrines are a crow-sized bird with wingspans up to 44 inches. They are the fastest birds known, capable of reaching about 200 mph while diving.
The falcons were taken off the federal endangered species list last year but remain on the state list. At this point, Mr. Jasper said, ODNR no longer is matchmaking. “It's up to them now. We're just observers.”
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