News from the Bird Nerds

Falcon Reintroduced on Ted Turner’s Ranch

By Emily Esterson , 8-02-06

The falcon is coming back to New Mexico on Thursday. And he's following other nearly extinct or extinct from New Mexico birds to Ted Turner's ranch.

Have I lost you yet? Stay with me for a moment: The northern aplomado falcon will be reintroduced to New Mexico, according to the Albuquerque Journal. Eleven birds will be released at the 300,000-acre Armendaris Ranch east of Truth or Consequences, and owned by Ted Turner. The ranch is part of the Turner Endangered Species Fund project. Overall, the Fish and Wildlife Service, along with The Peregrine Fund, plan to release no more than 150 birds over the year, from two "hacks" on the Armendaris.

About four years ago, another rare bird made an appearance at Ted's place, just behind the ranch house and home of Tom Waddell, the ranch manager. It was the exotic, tropical-looking thick-billed parrot, and it lived quite a few weeks in the tree behind that house until conservationists moved it. I had a trip to Las Cruces during that time, so I stopped on the way back to see the parrot. At the time, about a half-a-dozen bird watchers were standing around this backyard, binoculars pointed at a branch high up in the tree.

The effort to reintroduce the falcon, which had not been seen in the U.S. since the 1950s until eleven years ago when a reintroduction project was launched in Texas, was initiated by The Peregrine Fund, and the birds were part of a propogation project in Idaho. Currently 40 pairs of falcons from the original release in 1995 live in Texas. If the project can successfully reintroduce another 20 pairs of falcons, the Fish and Wildlife Service can reclassify the bird as "threatened" instead of endangered. According to Environmental Defense, the true reason for the bird's near extinction isn't known, scientists believe its related to DDT and the degradation of grazing lands.

The thick billed parrot hasn't been so lucky. Once prevalent in Southern New Mexico and Arizona, the exotic, macaw-looking fellow now lives mostly in the highlands of northern Mexico. Its appearance at Ted Turner's ranch three years ago left scientists scratching their heads--did a windstorm blow it off course? Is it an escapee from the illegal bird trade? The answer may never be known, and the bird hasn't reappeared, despite the appeal of the remote Armendaris Ranch. In the meantime, other endangered species of birds and other wildlife like the bighorn sheep, are thriving down in T or C. And with any luck and good science, the falcon will be, too.

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