The Thieving Peregrine
This summer I have spent considerable amount of time over the week-ends near Burlington Lift Bridge to observe and photograph a family of Peregrines. Besides two adults there were three chicks in that nest. All three have successfully fledged in early June and as far as I can tell only two are seen in recent times, one is presumably lost. Given their high mortality rate there's no surprises there. The juveniles are on their way to independence and is hard to find them all at the same location. They still depend on their parents for food. One morning I observed an interesting skill of the adult male. When a juvenile came flying begging for food, he took off from his perch and went to look for food. Interestingly food is right under their feet. The Burlington Lift Bridge, where these Peregrines hang around, hosts multitude of pigeon nests in the cavities of the frames. The same goes with the nearby Skybridge. The adult male was seen systematically searching for pigeon squab in these cavities by flying in and out. Soon he found one nest with chicks in it, grabbed one chick and flew away. What an easy meal. What impressed me most was his methodical approach in the whole affair.
After eating part of the prey, the male returned to where the juvenile was sitting and did a mid-air transfer of the half eaten pigeon chick to the juvenile. Given their natural hunting habit of pursuing a prey in flight, this newly acquired skill of searching for food in nest cavities has definitely put this Peregrine in a class of its own. The urbanized Peregrines are developing new skills for survival for sure. Interestingly the adult female hasn't learnt this particular skill set and still prefers capturing a pigeon in flight. She is very successful at that. Unlike the nest invasion, catching a prey in flight requires a lot of energy. It was interesting to see the fastest animal in the world is resorting to thievery. Here's a composite of three frames of the incident where the adult male is seen going inside a pigeon nesting hole and stole a pigeon squab from the nest (left to right). Burlington, Ontario, Canada.
The Thieving Peregrine
This summer I have spent considerable amount of time over the week-ends near Burlington Lift Bridge to observe and photograph a family of Peregrines. Besides two adults there were three chicks in that nest. All three have successfully fledged in early June and as far as I can tell only two are seen in recent times, one is presumably lost. Given their high mortality rate there's no surprises there. The juveniles are on their way to independence and is hard to find them all at the same location. They still depend on their parents for food. One morning I observed an interesting skill of the adult male. When a juvenile came flying begging for food, he took off from his perch and went to look for food. Interestingly food is right under their feet. The Burlington Lift Bridge, where these Peregrines hang around, hosts multitude of pigeon nests in the cavities of the frames. The same goes with the nearby Skybridge. The adult male was seen systematically searching for pigeon squab in these cavities by flying in and out. Soon he found one nest with chicks in it, grabbed one chick and flew away. What an easy meal. What impressed me most was his methodical approach in the whole affair.
After eating part of the prey, the male returned to where the juvenile was sitting and did a mid-air transfer of the half eaten pigeon chick to the juvenile. Given their natural hunting habit of pursuing a prey in flight, this newly acquired skill of searching for food in nest cavities has definitely put this Peregrine in a class of its own. The urbanized Peregrines are developing new skills for survival for sure. Interestingly the adult female hasn't learnt this particular skill set and still prefers capturing a pigeon in flight. She is very successful at that. Unlike the nest invasion, catching a prey in flight requires a lot of energy. It was interesting to see the fastest animal in the world is resorting to thievery. Here's a composite of three frames of the incident where the adult male is seen going inside a pigeon nesting hole and stole a pigeon squab from the nest (left to right). Burlington, Ontario, Canada.