(continued from Part 1 - The Basics)
Courtship and Mating - 15 easy steps to create Peregrine Falcons
Without question, I never ever thought I'd be writing about the mating process of Peregrine Falcons. That said, observing the entire courtship and mating at our site has been a great learning experience. From a high level, and bearing in mind that I'm not a biologist or avian specialist, here is the process:
1. Male selects what he believes to be a suitable location
2. Male then focuses on finding a female, and attracting her to his chosen location
3. The male is then tasked with convincing the female that he'll be a good provider, and that he's chosen a good location.
4. If she's interested, the female will entertain the male's sales pitch, and investigate the location as well as evaluating the male's behaviour
5. If the female stays long enough, the male will begin bringing the female food offerings, and interacting with her in various ways including bowing and vocalizing
6. Once the relationship has progressed, the pair may become "territorial", meaning they are acting as a team to protect their location. They will attack and drive away other predatory birds including Red-Tailed Hawks, Kestrels, and even huge Turkey Vultures. If an invader is noticed by either falcon, a specific "alarm sound" is heard, following which the Peregrines attack without abandon, often as a team until they drive the invader away. In some cases this can prove fatal to the Peregrines, fortunately in our case and at the time of this writing they've succeeded at driving away their invaders.
7. Such territorial defending can trigger mating, possibly from the adrenaline-like high of the chase, or the comraderie of the teamwork. We were fortunate to witness a mating immediately following a territorial dispute with a Red-Tail Hawk.
8. Mating is preceded by some tell-tale signs. The male will approach the female, vocalize (sounds like ee-chup ee-chup) and bow down in front of her, at close proximity. If she accepts his advances, she will indicate so with a pose suggesting so.
9. The male will quickly mount the female and in the case of our birds, in less than 15 seconds he's done his duty and flies off immediately after, often returning to a nearby perch. To view a mating animated from photos, click here.
10. At this point, the female has received the male's contribution to reproduction process. The female can hold this fluid for up to 7 days, during which time she'll produce the eggs and they will hopefully be fertilized.
11. The production of the egg requires a significant amount of calcium from the female. This calcium is obtained through the bones contained in her meals. In cases where eggs are not fertile, the female may eat the egg to recapture valuable calcium she'll need to create eggs in the future. This occurred after the first clutch at our site, when two of 3 eggs were eaten.
12. Eventually, an egg will be laid, and additional eggs will be laid every second day until she's done. A typical "clutch" contains 4 eggs, sometimes less, sometimes as many as 5.
13. While still laying eggs, the female will not begin incubating until the second-last egg has been laid. At that point she goes into "hard incubation", which starts the clock ticking on all the eggs.
14. Incubation is a shared effort between the male and female. They will take turns incubating the eggs during the day, the female usually takes over for the night.
15. After the eggs have been incubated for 33 to 35 days, they begin to hatch, assuming success in every step of the process.
After hatching, the young will grow over the next 35-45 days, finally reaching a point where they're bigger than their parents (due to baby fat). Eventually they'll have the confidence to attempt their first flights, which is when mayhem ensues for the volunteers involved in a "fledge watch".
Article & Photos - Mathew Rossi 2008