Aura is perched at the edge of an overhang 29 dizzying storeys above ground, like a Marvel superhero. Overlooking a dominion of wetland hemmed in by the city and a road rolling southwest, threatening more development. She drowsily scratches her chin, eyes closed to the burgeoning March sun. Aura is a female peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus calidus). Her distinctive dark hood, white cheek patches and slate blue back contrasts with a light underbelly marked with horizontal bars and arrowheads. A faint peach fades over her shoulders and breast.
I am here with members of the raptor study group of the Madras Naturalist’s Society. The MNS has been tracking peregrines in Chennai for almost two years, one of the first such studies in India. The study has revealed >35 individuals in the city; including a few shaheens during the southwest monsoon months. Shaheens (Falco peregrinus peregrinator) are a smaller, brighter plumaged sub-species resident in India that makes local movements. Unlike Aura, whose breeding grounds are far north, somewhere between the Eurasian Tundra and eastern Siberia.
