Aug 17, 2009 1:44 pm US/Eastern
Brooklyn Man Rescues Falcon From Pigeon Bullies
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Adult peregrine falcons are fearless predators at the top of their food-chain.
But when a Brooklyn man witnessed a gang of pigeons chasing and pecking at a peregrine falcon chick on Monday, he rushed in and rescued the baby predator.
Morgan Pitts says the falcon was either abandoned by its mother or fell from its nest in his Greenpoint, Brooklyn, neighborhood.
The frightened chick is now in the care of veterinarians at The Animal Medical Center in Manhattan.
The peregrine became endangered due to the use of pesticides like DDT. When DDT was banned in the 1970s, peregrine populations recovered.
Today, there are nearly 3,000 breeding pairs of peregrine falcons in North America.
The falcons were called duck hawks in North America.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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