Nebraska Capitol Peregrine Falcon Chicks Identified and Banded

On Wednesday, the three chicks were identified as two females and one male, based on the size of their feet. They hatched May 24 in a nest box near the top of the Nebraska Capitol and are the first falcons to be born at the Capitol in eight years.

Joel Jorgensen, Nebraska Game and Parks nongame bird manager, attached two different bands Wednesday, nearly three weeks after the chicks hatched. The first is a metal band published by the federal Bird Banding Lab. The other is a colored alphanumeric strip that can be used to identify birds from a distance.

“If this bird flies somewhere after a few years and ends up staying somewhere else, we can identify where it came from,” Jorgensen said as he banded one of the chicks Wednesday.

The public can submit name suggestions in the “Name the Chicks” contest running through June 20 at OutdoorNebraska.gov. A survey will then be available for voting from June 21 to 30. The winner will be announced July 1 and will receive a one-year subscription to Nebraskaland magazine.

Once Jorgensen completed the banding process, he turned each chick over to Betsy Finch and her husband to perform an examination. Finch, director of Raptor Conservation Alliance, said she has worked with peregrines since 1988, when the birds were introduced to Lincoln.

Since the birds were not sick, Finch did a quick examination and applied an anti-parasitic spray to kill the feather mites.

Unless they are injured, this is the only time in the hawks' lives that Jorgensen and Finch will come into contact with the birds.

This week's ringing process was the first time since the last chick hatched in 2016, when a male was produced. Jorgensen said this male chick came from a pair of hawks, named Ally and 19K, who were quite active at the Capitol from 2005 to 2020. Ally and 19K raised 23 chicks during their stay.

“The last few years of their nesting activity have been unsuccessful. They had fertility issues to some extent,” Jorgensen said.

After the pair disappeared in 2020 and died in the years that followed, people began to forget about the falcons as hope for new chicks dwindled.

“There really hasn't been any nesting at the Capitol in a few years,” Jorgensen said. “It took a while, longer than I expected, for a couple to move in.”

Since 19K and Ally left, a few birds have been seen from time to time, but Jorgensen said there were no consistent pairs until this year. They don't yet know where the current adult hawks came from, because Wednesday was the first time they were able to take a photo of their bands. The male has a black and blue tag with 39/V. The female's tag, also black and blue, reads U/57.

The hawk nest box is located outside the 18th floor of the Capitol which is inaccessible to the public. It is, however, visible on the sidewalk on the north side of the Capitol. The first box was installed in 1991 before being removed in 1998 for four years during renovations to the Capitol. A new box was installed in 2003.

Jorgensen said the birds fascinated locals. Interest continued to grow around the birds as cameras were installed near the box to provide a live stream of nest activity. Jorgensen said different variations of the cameras have been in place since 2006, with the first cameras producing still images about every 30 seconds. Today, viewers can watch a live stream on YouTube.

“Seeing nature up close and personal is very interesting because in a world where we live with so many artificial things on the Internet and everything, this is real life, this is nature,” Jorgensen said. “There is no script for this breeding pair, and the survival of these birds is not very easy.”

A Facebook group called “Peregrine Falcons Lincoln Ne” has more than 1,300 members and frequently posts updates and highlights from the flying family live stream. Members of the group first noticed the eggs being laid on April 16. On April 20, there were three eggs.

At one point, peregrine falcons were considered an endangered species, and historically they were not found in Nebraska, particularly in eastern Nebraska, according to Jorgensen.

Primarily, falcons select their natural nesting sites on steep cliffs to protect their eggs and chicks from predators, weather and humans.

“We obviously don't have tall, steep cliffs in eastern Nebraska, but the species has adapted to buildings because they kind of mimic steep cliffs,” Jorgensen said.

According to Jorgensen, about 40 percent of peregrine falcon chicks survive to their first birthday. If they make it past the first year, they will likely start looking for a place to establish their own nest within the next couple of years. In the past, some Capitol hawks have flown to Omaha or Kansas to breed.

“It’s nature, and nature is harsh and can be very cruel. The reality is that a young peregrine falcon’s first year is very difficult,” Jorgensen said. “If these birds fly away, there’s a good chance that only one or two of them will survive the first year of their lives.”