Read the article about birds called peregrines, and then answer the following questions.
Read the article about birds called peregrines, and then answer the following questions.
Peregrines: finding a home in the city
If people stare upwards at New York’s famous Empire State Building, they can occasionally spot a bird that is becoming an icon of New York – the peregrine. Those who are lucky enough to recognise this bird, once among the rarest in the USA, can see the Earth’s fastest creature looking surprisingly at home on this New York attraction.
These sightings provide evidence of the remarkable recovery of this bird of prey, which had almost entirely disappeared from its traditional environment in rural North America. Although there were about 2000 pairs of peregrines there at the end of the 19th century, this number was already going down. The decline continued throughout the early 20th century, especially during the 1950s. By 1964, there were no active nesting pairs of peregrines in the whole of the north-eastern USA. Some of the decline can be explained by reductions in the numbers of the animals they feed on, but scientists are now convinced it was largely due to an agricultural chemical called DDT. This was used to destroy harmful insects, but also killed other wildlife such as birds, and was banned in the USA in 1972.
In order to increase peregrine numbers, a programme at Cornell University called The Peregrine Fund was set up in 1970. The project involved breeding young birds and in 1974, it began to reintroduce them into the wild. By the 1980s, peregrine numbers were gradually rising, and this has continued to the present day. Since 1983, thousands of young peregrines have successfully reached adulthood in New York State alone.
This growth in numbers has meant peregrines have spread from their traditional rural locations into some of the USA’s biggest cities. This has introduced new challenges for the birds. Peregrine parents are occasionally unable to hear the young birds in the nest calling due to the noise of the city. Despite this, peregrines have adapted to urban environments highly successfully.
New York City is now home to the largest population of urban peregrines on the planet. Somehow, even though a city is full of hazards, such as young birds in their nests being disturbed by maintenance crews, it seems to be an ideal environment for peregrines. While the species of smaller birds the peregrines traditionally feed on are harder to find in New York, there is still plenty of food for them. And although people might think that the cliffs where rural peregrines usually make their homes are safer, tall buildings offer remarkably good nesting sites.
Despite this, peregrines sometimes fly into the modern glass used in eco-friendly architecture because it is almost invisible to them. Nevertheless, the birds can still be found on many famous skyscrapers and flying around all the major bridges in the city. Other potential dangers for peregrines are the electrical power lines that can be seen high up between buildings.
Peregrines are fast becoming a tourist attraction, which is an obvious advantage for the city. And although you might think that people wouldn’t be keen on having peregrines nesting so close to where they live or work, the birds actually reduce the cost of cleaning the buildings by keeping messy city-dwelling birds such as pigeons away.
The Department of Environmental Conservation has avoided estimating how many peregrines will call the city home in decades to come. Personally, I’d say that numbers will double, but the peregrine’s most optimistic supporters suggest the current figure will increase by 300%. Let’s hope they’re right.
Which world record do peregrines hold?