Not pictured here

20041110_01b
Originally uploaded by Ravenmn.

On Wednesday I got to watch as the The Raptor Center banded the peregrine chicks that live on the top of City Center in downtown Minneapolis. There are four chicks: two males and two females. They were tremendously unhappy throughout the whole affair. Their feathers are in and trying to shove all that downy fluff aside. Every time they moved they released a snowstorm of fluff. I couldn't find any pics, so the picture here is from a similar program in California.

Here's the article that ran in the Skyway News:

Downtown baby falcons' public banding is Wednesday
By Rachel Drewelow

If you've never seen a baby peregrine falcon up close, your chance comes Wednesday, June 22, when four chicks are banded in City Center's atrium.

The 10 a.m. ceremony is open to the public, and follows the baby birds' May 25 birth on the roof of the 33 South Sixth skyscraper, which is attached to City Center, 615 Hennepin Ave. S.

University of Minnesota Raptor Center volunteers will do the honors.

Peregrines have been laying eggs in a nest box on the tower's roof since 1987. These are not the only nesting falcons Downtown - there are others atop City Hall, 350 S 5th St., and Midwest Plaza, 801 Nicollet Mall.

Falcons commonly nest on high cliffs or bluffs overlooking a coastline, according to the Raptor Center's Web site. The practice of placing safe wooden nest boxes in high office buildings and below bridges began in the '70s to boost a falcon population that was quickly becoming extinct. Falcons were removed from the endangered species list in 1999.

Volunteers from the Raptor Center monitor the nest boxes.

Banding allows the far-flying birds' paths to be tracked worldwide.