Except for isolated areas where native populations have survived, virtually all of the peregrine falcons in the United States today are a result of the reintroduction efforts.

All captive raised birds reintroduced into the wild have been banded. Furthermore, most of the nest sites are monitored. Whenever possible, young birds produced in the wild are also banded before they leave the nest. As a result, approximately 80% of the peregrines in the Midwest today can be identified by their individual leg markings.

Although different approaches have been used elsewhere, in recent years a uniform approach to banding has been followed in the Midwest. Bands are placed on both legs. The band on the right leg is a traditional U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USF&W) bird band that has been color-coded. Right leg bands on captive raised birds are gold in color. Peregrines produced in the wild wear purple bands.

The left leg band is used for individual identification. These bands are marked with unique combinations of letters and numbers. To increase the number of available combinations, the characters are often placed on their side. For example, Dakota Ace has two letters on his left leg band. The top letter is a sideways "H". The bottom letter is a "D" oriented in the conventional manner.

The left leg bands are also color-coded. Through 1998, most of the bands used in the Midwest were black on top and red on the bottom. Starting in 1999, the color combination was changed to black over green. The colors of the bands help determine the bird's age and origin. Individual identifications, however, require that the letters or numbers on the left band be read.

We know from banding records that Dakota Ace was hatched in 1997 at the South Dakota Raptor Trust breeding facility in Centerville, South Dakota. He was released that summer in Sioux Falls, and almost immediately disappeared. He was presumed to be lost, as most young falcons who prematurely leave the release sites do not survive on their own. We know nothing more about Dakota Ace's personal history until the spring of 2000, when he first showed up in Fargo. Since then he has successfully defended his territory, and appears to be firmly established as our resident male falcon.

Since arriving in Fargo, Dakota Ace has paired with at least four female falcons. The first was Goldie who also arrived in 2000. She and Dakota Ace stayed together through that September, and both returned in the spring of 2001. That year they made history by becoming the first pair of reintroduced falcons to successfully nest in North Dakota.

Goldie hatched in 1999 in Omaha, Nebraska. She was part of an unusually large brood of five, and had an interesting lineage. Her father was Zeus; a bird released in Rochester, New York in 1994, who somehow found his way to Omaha the next year where he can still be found. Her great-grandmother was Maud, the first falcon produced in the wild as part of the Midwest restoration efforts. Maud was hatched in 1987 from a nest on the Multifoods Tower in Minneapolis.

Regrettably, Goldie did not return to Fargo in the spring of 2002. Presumably she did not survive the winter. She was replaced by a succession of juvenile (one year old) females. The first two were unbanded, and therefore unidentifiable. The third was our current female, whose name is Frieda.

Frieda was hatched in the wild in 2001. She was one of a brood of four, raised in a nest box attached to a smokestack near Alma, Wisconsin. Her mother was killed in a hailstorm three weeks before Frieda and her siblings were old enough to leave the nest. Nonetheless, they were all successfully raised by the surviving male parent.

Frieda is a good example of the detailed genetic information that is also available regarding many individual birds. Her genetic heritage includes representatives of all three North American subspecies, as well as a fourth subspecies that occurs naturally in southern Europe.

- Information provided by Wick Corwin