A Gyrfalcon in Michigan

Fayette Gyrfalcon, photo by Angela Merz

I was showing a friend the recent post about osprey in Michigan and he said “well guess what my wife got a photo of the other day?” What Angela got was a rare (for Michigan) photo of a gyrfalcon taken at Fayette State Park.

The Rouge River Bird Observatory has a report on a sighting in Dearborn in 2005 that caused quite a stir:

The Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus) is the world’s largest falcon, nearly the size of a Red-tailed Hawk. This Arctic-nesting bird is rarely seen in the United States. When populations of ptarmigan, chicken-like tundra birds that are a main prey item of Gyrfalcons, fall below certain levels, some Gyrfalcons move into southern Canada and the United States in the winter. When one is found, many birders will rush to see it.

In Michigan, the most reliable place to see a Gyrfalcon is at Sault Ste. Marie (click here for a more thorough report on the occurrence of this species in the state). They are very rare in the Lower Peninsula.

Thus it was sensational when Kim Hall, Julie Craves, and Darrin O’Brien located a subadult (first year) Gyrfalcon at a Dearborn office complex while participating in the annual Detroit River Christmas Bird Count.

Get more information about Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus) from the UM Animal Diversity Web and click the photo to the left for another view of this rare Michigan sighting!