A female peregrine falcon that raised two chicks atop Nampa's Amalgamated Sugar Co. factory has died in the bottom of a factory smokestack.
The peregrine and two pigeons were found during routine cleaning."It's just a very freak occurrence," said Rich Howard, biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
While some 60 percent of wild peregrines fall prey to great-horned owls and other predators in their first year, the Nampa bird succumbed to a more urban danger.
Howard speculated the female fell into the 200-foot-tall smoke stack pursuing a pigeon and could not fly out.
View Comments
Fish and Game requested Amalgamated Sugar keep some doors open at the bottom of the stack in the future during times of non-use.