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May 16, 2008 8:00 pm US/Pacific
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Scientists Determine Gender Of Baby SJ Falcons
SAN JOSE (CBS 5 / KCBS) ―
It was a pretty spectacular show at San Jose City Hall Friday morning, when bird researchers rappelled down the side of the building.
Scientists were on a mission to determine the gender of the baby falcons living on the building's roof.
Fending off an angry falcon parent, a bird researcher made his way to the falcon box and identified the babies as two females and one male. He said all three look pretty healthy. "Oh great, they look really good. A lot of food for them in this town, a lot of pigeons. One budgie just a couple of light green feathers in there, but the birds look all around pretty good," he declared.
Before climbing back up, the researcher also put bands on the babies' legs.
Glenn Stewart with the Predatory Bird Research Group at UC Santa Cruz explained the bands have identification and telephone information on them.
"So if you were to find this bird, you could read the phone number, call the number, tell them that you have this thing and they'd tell you where the bird originated, how old it was and so forth," Stewart said.
The entire event was certainly a sight to be seen by falcon fans. "I don't know where he is," one woman said of the absent falcon father. "Last year both parents were totally protective."
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