Falcon chicks accidentally hitch a ride to Oregon farm. Now they have a new home
A pair of falcon chicks have found a new home after accidentally hitching a ride to an Oregon farm over 100 miles away, according to a nonprofit.
The chicks, estimated to be about 10 days old, were nestled in a bale of hay when they made the trek from Burns to a Tumalo farm, an approximate 140-mile journey, Think Wild Central Oregon said in a June 21 Instagram post.
With no mother to be found, the person who found the chicks contacted the nonprofit, which said it gave the pair “heat support and food.”
To find potential foster parents, the nonprofit said it contacted East Cascades Audubon Society (ECAS), which “manages a kestrel nest box monitoring project.”
So long as nestlings are around the same age as their own, kestrels frequently foster orphaned nestlings, according to the nonprofit.
The nonprofit said a volunteer took the two chicks to “Crooked River Ranch, where ECAS confirmed that a kestrel family had established a nest with three healthy nestlings.”
Since kestrels usually have a brood of about five nestlings, adding two more would not overwhelm the parents, the nonprofit said.
The nonprofit said it expects all five chicks “to fledge the nest in about two weeks,” as the parents continue to help the little ones along as “they gain flight skills.”
“Think Wild and ECAS are optimistic that all of these young kestrels will lead successful lives in the wild,” the nonprofit said.
American kestrels, whose population has been in decline, are North America’s smallest falcon, the nonprofit said.
“In total, North America has lost an estimated 2 million kestrels since 1970,” Chris McClure, executive vice president of science and conservation at The Peregrine Fund, told Audubon Magazine. “No one disputes kestrels have long been declining, but the pace of the drop-off has also been a subject of debate.”
Because of the declining population, the ECAS Kestrel Nest Box Project works to support the species and gather additional data about them, according to the nonprofit.
Tumalo is about 8 miles northwest of Bend.
