Peregrine Falcon Chicks Found Atop City Bridge
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Four female Peregrine Falcon chicks have been found atop the Queens tower of the Throgs Neck Bridge, transit officials said yesterday.
Hatched about three weeks ago, the newborns are already feasting on pigeons, black birds, and blue jays about five times a day. Their talons have grown to nearly the size of a grown man’s hand.
An official with the Department of Environmental Protection yesterday climbed the 360-foot tower to tag the chicks.
Peregrine falcons, which are on the endangered list in New York, have made a comeback in recent years. About 32 now live in the city.
The falcons mimic their natural habitat of high cliffs by nesting atop bridges, church steeples, and high-rise buildings, wildlife experts said. The last falcons born on the Throgs Neck bridge hatched in the 1980s.
