Diana

Janus

Rowena

Ivanhoe

The downtown Peregrines are Diana (she’s been here since the summer of 2005 and began breeding here in 2006) and Janus. He showed up last year after Connor, the longtime resident male, disappeared. Connor was at least 15 years old, so he may have died of natural causes or lost a fight to a younger rival and had to move on. Diana and Janus are virtually impossible to tell apart except by size, especially because how we see birds’ colours varies dramatically depending on light conditions.

The Heron Rd. resident pair were named Ivanhoe and Rowena (after the Saxon hero and his love interest in Sir Walter Scott’s historical novel). Rowena’s colouring is browner, while Ivanhoe is more grey.

None of Ottawa’s resident breeding Peregrine Falcons is banded, which makes their identification a challenge. It can be very difficult to tell the adults apart unless they are perched next to each other, in which case we can tell by their relative size (among birds of prey, the females are always larger than the males). In our reports, we often have to guess which bird is being observed, and we don’t always guess right.