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SALT LAKE CITY — The cameras inside the nesting box atop the Joseph Smith Memorial Building were switched on Tuesday, but two peregrine falcons who call the box home each spring weren't there.
The female is recovering from a respiratory infection and the male may have been killed recently in a collision with a downtown skyscraper, according Bob Walters, watchable wildlife coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
On March 29, the female falcon was found in obvious distress outside the Joseph Smith Memorial Building by building staff, Walters said.
"They called and told me, 'We have one of your birds out here. It's on the ground. It's not looking right. It's having trouble standing on a perch,'" Walters said.
Walters was able to capture the raptor. She was taken to a wildlife rehabilitation center where she was diagnosed with aspergillus, a respiratory fungus that has a 50 percent survival rate, Walters said.
"We just kind of have our fingers crossed that it's treatable," he said Tuesday. "She's stable, she's improving, and we hope that continues. The word, preliminarily, is that treatment will last for 30 days."
That means the female will likely miss this year's nesting season, Walters said, adding that based on the bird's markings and color, he believes she has used the downtown building's nesting box since at least 2011 to raise 11 babies.
"We're not sure she'll ever be healthy enough to release back into the wild," he said.
We just kind of have our fingers crossed that it's treatable. She's stable, she's improving, and we hope that continues. The word, preliminarily, is that treatment will last for 30 days.
–Bob Walters, watchable wildlife coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
Unfortunately, the bad bird news doesn't end there.
Five days after the female falcon was captured, a male peregrine falcon slammed into the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Salt Lake City and crashed to the ground. The person who found the dead bird thought it was a hawk of some kind and called animal control for help. She said she was told to dispose of the bird, so she buried it in a planter outside the building with the help of co-workers, Walters said.
On Monday, the woman called DWR to report the burial after hearing that the female falcon was sick.
"We walked out the east doors of Wells Fargo, over to one of these planters, one of these above ground planters," Walters said. "A man stuck a shovel in the ground, reached down and pulled up the bird.
"It's an adult peregrine falcon and I'm like, 'Wow!'" Walters added. "I wonder how many peregrines have died (in urban areas) that we don't know about, that are just disposed of?"
It's impossible — without a lot of work — to determine whether the dead male was the mate of the female who is now being treated, Walters said, adding that there may be more than one male peregrine trying to lay claim to downtown Salt Lake this spring. He watched one with a scope on Sunday as it sat on a ledge of the LDS Church Office Building.
If that bird is still around, Walters said, his presence could ensure that there's something to see on the "falcon cam" this spring.
"Maybe there's one out there that's going to re-assume or take this open territory," he said. "Then it's up to him to go out and find himself a mate. It's that simple."
