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Officials Release Peregrine Falcon Back Into Wild

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Nov 6, 2008 2:15 pm US/Eastern

Officials Release Peregrine Falcon Back Into Wild

PENN HILLS (KDKA) ― A young falcon making its first migratory trip made an unexpected stop in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago, but while she was here she ran into some medical problems.

But some local animal officials came to her rescue and nursed the bird back to health.

Officials say the peregrine falcon was on its way from northern Canada to South America when it got trapped on a balcony of a downtown high-rise and needed a little bit of help.

"It's the most interesting thing we ever found," said John Moore, of the Zambrano Corp. "It looked to me to be a falcon or perhaps maybe an immature hawk of some sort. So I was confident when I called that it was a bird of prey at least."

"Sure enough, we went down there and it was a peregrine falcon. It's really, actually, the first time that I've gotten a call and it has been a peregrine," said Todd Katzner, of the National Aviary. "It weighed about 550-580 grams when we brought it in, and today it weighed about 900 grams. So it gained almost half of its weight back. That gives you some idea of how bad of shape it was in. It was lethargic and just real hungry."

Today, that same falcon was released into the wild after being nursed back to health by the Animal Rescue League of Penn Hills.

"She eats mice, rats, birds, things like that, and water and we gave her medical fluids," said Jill Argall, of the Animal Rescue League. "She took it from there, she healed and sprung back to life after we gave her fluids."

Officials say the falcon has a long journey ahead, but its chances of making it are better than ever.

"It's probably in as good shape as it could have been. So it's got a better shot than almost any other bird out there," said Katzner.

It should take about a month to get south, and officials say they have put an ID tag on its leg just in case.




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