Library's Baby Falcons To Be Named Thursday

Two baby peregrine falcons roosting on the roof will be given names in a public ceremony Thursday.

For the ninth year in a row, a pair of falcons has nested atop the downtown branch, according to a press release from the library.

Parents Nona and Squawker have returned again and again over the past seven years. This year, Nona laid four eggs; on May 2, while the second hatched a few days later. Called eyases, the baby falcons are expected to take flight in June.

Earlier:

The library will host a public ceremony this Thursday, when scientists from the Field Museum will band the eyases and the library will announce their names.

Library patrons voted on the names at the library and in an online poll. Options for the male include Chayton, a Native American name meaning "falcon," and "Gribley," after Sam Gribley, a boy who befriends a falcon in the young adult book My Side of the Mountain. Girls' names include Katniss, after the main character of the Hunger Games trilogy, and Salome, a famous character in Latino literature.

Last year's baby falcons  Wilbur, Lincoln, Dewey, and Rosalind. According to the library, most falcons do not live to be one year old, however.

This year's banding and naming ceremony will take place at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, May 31, at the west end of the downtown library's second floor, by the windows facing out onto Church Street.