Peregrine Falcon: Annie
- Hatch year 1995
- Weight: 2 lbs.
- Found in St. Louis
- Hit by vehicle
- Un-releasable due to fractured left wing and collarbone, blindness in left eye
Annie was hit by a car while in-flight near St. Louis. She flew over the car and hit the ground hard, suffering a wing fracture and multiple soft-tissue injuries. She was admitted to The Raptor Center’s clinic on July 29, 1995, where it was determined she had broken her right metacarpal (a bone in the wrist) and left coracoid (a bone in the shoulder). Her fractures were set and she began to heal. During physical therapy, Annie would only turn to the right while flying. An ophthalmologist found that a cataract had formed in Annie’s left eye, possibly a result of the trauma sustained in the car collision. It was determined that, due to her partial blindness, Annie’s chances of survival in the wild would be very low. In January 1998, Annie joined The Raptor Center’s education department. In recent years, her blind eye has grown cloudy in appearance, and a series of x-rays in 2008 showed her lens might have completely mineralized.
As a part of conservation efforts to restore peregrine falcon populations, nesting pairs are closely monitored and hatchlings are banded. Annie’s band number (1087-53848) shows that her parents were Luidee 1/*A, hatched in 1993 in Saint Paul, and Comet IIV, hatched in Virginia, Minn., in 1988. In 1995, these two birds nested at the now-gone Montgomery Ward building in Saint Paul, laid four eggs, three of which hatched May 16: two males and one female (Annie).