Peregrine Falcons Indianapolis. A Pere

Just five decades ago, habitat loss and a deadly pesticide had all but killed off one of the Midwest’s most impressive aerial predators.

Now, Indiana’s wildlife regulators are poised to remove the peregrine falcon from the state’s endangered species list this summer.

John Castrale, a biologist with the Department of Natural Resources, said the recovery of the species has been “phenomenally successful,” thanks to reintroduction efforts, a ban on the pesticide that was killing the birds and the falcons’ remarkable ability to adapt to urban environments.

Indianapolis is no stranger to the falcons. Just last week, a nesting pair, dubbed KathyQ and Will, hatched their fourth chick of the year on the 31st-story ledge of Market Tower on Monument Circle in Downtown Indianapolis. Another male, named Kinney, had nested with KathyQ for years, but died last summer.

An Indianapolis Star blog featuring live cameras received 7.1 million views last year. The pair have Facebook fan pages, too, each with more than 1,000 “likes.”

There’s another nest at Indianapolis Power & Light Co.’s Harding Street plant on the Southwestside; that nest also is on camera .

Castrale said the birds have traded their traditional nesting sites — in cliffs and bluffs along riverbanks — for skyscrapers.

“They’ve adapted to use these artificial sites, artificial cliffs,” he said of the birds’ penchant for skyscrapers. “That’s really made a difference. They’re really taking advantage of it.”

Falcons, known for their dazzling diving aerial attacks on prey such as pigeons, can plummet at close to 200 mph to strike, stun and kill an unsuspecting bird.

Peregrine falcons were traditionally rare in Indiana. Castrale said biologists think that in the 1800s and the early 1900s, there were 60 to 80 pairs of birds in the entire upper Midwest.

Castrale said that’s partly due to limited nesting sites and the falcons’ penchant for staking out territories several miles in radius, which they aggressively defend against avian intruders.

But even those falcons began to disappear with the widespread use of the pesticide DDT after World War II.

The pesticide was sprayed to kill mosquitoes and agricultural pests, but the chemicals also caused some birds’ eggshells to be perilously thin, killing the chicks inside. It was a problem that plagued not just falcons, but also other raptors such as the bald eagle.

Castrale said that by the 1960s, the falcons were completely eradicated east of the Mississippi River.

In 1972, the U.S. banned the use of DDT, but by 1975, only 324 pairs of birds lived in the U.S.

In 1970, peregrine falcons were listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That decade, wildlife officials also began trying to restore peregrine populations by releasing young captive-bred birds.

Gradually, they began to come back.

In 1989, a single pair of peregrines nested successfully in East Chicago, the first known nesting in Indiana since 1900, according to the DNR.

In 1991, 15 young birds were released in Indianapolis. Over the following three years, there were similar releases in Fort Wayne, South Bend and Evansville. In total, 60 falcons were released across the state.

DNR biologists keep an eye on the known nests, and the young birds are captured and fitted with leg bands so biologists can track their movements.

Castrale said that there are 20 to 22 “nesting territories” in the state. A nesting territory is how avian biologists such as Castrale describe the turf a nesting pair of falcons might stake out.

He said there are nearly 300 pairs living in the upper Midwest.

In 1999, the peregrine falcon was removed from the federal Endangered Species List, though the bird remains federally protected.

Castrale said Indiana officials were waiting to remove the bird from the state’s endangered list until the birds were able to maintain 16 nesting territories for at least three years.

“We’ve now done that,” Castrale said.

The Indiana Natural Resources Commission will make an official decision on whether to delist the birds at its July 16 meeting.
Like federal species protections, states’ endangered species rules typically provide harsher penalties for those harming endangered wildlife and limit development and other potentially harmful human interaction in an endangered species’ habitat.

DNR spokesman Phil Bloom said that if the falcons are delisted, it also would give falconers the opportunity to harvest from the wild up to two juvenile Indiana peregrine falcons a year to be kept in captivity.

Those concerned about the changes can submit comments to the commission through June 13.

There also will be two hearings to discuss the changes: June 10 at Mounds State Park in Anderson and June 13 at the Spring Mill Inn in Spring Mill State Park in Mitchell. Both hearings begin at 6 p.m.

Don Gorney, director of bird conservation at the Amos W. Butler Audobon Society, said he supports removing the birds from the list.

He said it’s remarkable the birds have surpassed their historic breeding numbers in Indiana, and there’s no indication the birds won’t continue their success.