Red Red: The Medical Center Falcon

Hear that screeching?  Spring is here and the medical center peregrine falcons are in their mating season. The Medical Center Archives had its first falcon sighting of the year on March 13th!  Their story begins with Red Red, a rare Cornell University-bred peregrine falcon, who first made her home at the medical center in 1987.  She was born at the Cornell University peregrine falcon facility in Ithaca, New York, which was set up to save this endangered bird species and reintroduce them into the wild.  Although she was released to the Arcadia National Park in Maine, she made her way down to New York City and chose the medical center to be her new home. Her name, Red Red, comes from the double Cornell connection (a reference to the university and medical college’s color.)

Red Red had two chicks with a mate named Buster in a nesting box outside the window ledge on the 24th floor of the Baker building.  Buster died in 1989 and was replaced by a falcon named PJ.  Red Red and PJ had several mating seasons here at the medical center and their descendants still breed in same nesting box at the medical center and elsewhere in New York City today.