Four Baby Falcons Tagged Under George Washington Bridge

Four peregrine falcon chicks in a nesting box placed on the George Washington Bridge were declared healthy and banded with tracking tags Tuesday by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.

The three-week-old chicks - old enough to be tagged, but too young to fly away - belong to one of 20 peregrine falcon pairs that live in New York City.

Though a concrete and neon city like New York may seem like an unnatural place for a bird of prey to call home, the scores of migratory bird species that pass through New York each year gives the falcons plenty of reason to stay in the Big Apple, where they perch on the city's skyscrapers and scout for prey, then dive at speeds of 200 mph to intercept other birds mid-flight.

"I've documented over 140 of birds that they feed on," Chris Nadareski, a wildlife biologist with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, told the Associated Press.

At about 2 feet long and with a wingspan of about 4 feet, the peregrine falcon's diet consists mainly of medium-sized birds, though it will occasionally prey on small mammals or reptiles.   

The nesting box, 189 feet above the Hudson River, was placed there by city authority that operates the bridge. There are several nesting boxes on the George Washington Bridge and other bridges around New York City to accommodate the falcons and other birds that don't build nests, instead preferring to leg eggs on a flat surface.

Nadareski placed tracking devices on the four new chicks' legs so they can identify which nesting box they came from if they are spotted around the city. The chicks' mother, however, squawked furiously in protest as Nadareski tagged the chicks, the AP reported.

"If it gets into trouble we know exactly which nest to bring it back to," Nadareski said.