Kestrel chicks rescued by wildlife center

Group discovers falcons are siblings, returns them to nest in Beijing's Fengtai

When the Beijing Raptor Rescue Center recently rescued two common kestrel chicks it received from different sources, it quickly established that the birds were siblings. With the help of the center's staff members, the birds were successfully returned to their nest in a residential building in the capital's Fengtai district on Thursday and Friday.

On May 14, Zhou Lei, a raptor rehabilitator with the BRRC, was contacted by police who had received a common kestrel chick. The police said the falcon had been found in Fengtai's Jingliang Yuegu residential community, but its nest could not be located. As such, Zhou took the falcon back to the center to care for it and prepare it for release once it was fully grown.

On Thursday, the BRRC received a call for help with a second common kestrel chick, which turned out to be a sibling of the bird that had been found earlier. It is thought that they had both fallen to the ground during their maiden flights. Rehabilitation staff and community employees searched for their nest outside the residential building and found three other chicks of the same age, all about a month old.

Liang Geng, secretary of the Jingliang Yuegu community Party committee who dealt with the second bird, said: "We found that this little bird was different. Although we couldn't determine its species, we were certain that it was a nationally protected wild animal."

With the help of staff members from the district forestry department and animal protection association, Liang contacted the BRRC.

The BRRC confirmed that the second bird was also a common kestrel, which had likely fallen while learning to fly. With guidance from the rescue center's staff members over the phone, community workers placed the bird inside a cardboard box and settled it in a quiet corner, waiting for the center's employees to arrive.