After establishing a wild Aplomado Falcon population in South Texas through captive breeding and releases, our team's priorities shifted to monitoring the falcons' territories, nesting activities, and life history. By tracking yearly trends and identifying population changes, we could continue assessing whether the population was self-sustaining. 

Biologist looks through scope at distant falcon nest

Christina Kleberg

A species once vanished

Our Solutions

Monitoring individual falcons and pairs allows our team to identify territories and potential nesting locations. This information then guides habitat restoration and protection recommendations, nest monitoring efforts, and conservation management decisions.

Biologist climbs ladder to access a nest in a nesting structure

Paul Juergens

Our Solutions

Every breeding season, from March to July, our team carefully monitors the nests, documenting the pairs, total nestlings hatched, and total fledged. The breeding success of the population is an important metric that tells our team whether the population is producing more falcons than it's losing to threats. 

Aplomado Falcon nestling in hand with bands on legs

Paul Juergens

Our Solutions

Once the nestlings within a nest reach a certain age, our team bands them with identifying metal "anklets," which allow them to be tracked over time. The information collected over time for each bird can paint a near-complete life history, including hatch location and parents, mates and offspring, occupied territories, and cause of death.

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