Now you can name the city’s peregrine chicks

12:44pm Friday 16th May 2008

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WORCESTER News readers are being given a unique chance to name the city's week-old falcon chicks.

The RSPB has teamed up with your Worcester News to give you the chance to name the two young peregrine falcons, born over on the recent bank holiday weekend.

The two best names chosen from your suggestions will be given to the chicks, which are nesting on St Andrew's Spire in Deansway.

Peregrine falcons are the fastest animal on earth, capable of speeds of 180mph.

Although their numbers have increased over recent years, there are still thought to be only 1,400 breeding pairs.

Worcester's most famous feathered family has appeared in several national newspapers and attracted national interest.

As previously reported in your Worcester News hundreds of people have been arriving to watch the chicks through a telescope, via a live webcam and on a CCTV camera, run by Worcester City Council and the RSPB.

Ross Lawford, peregrine falcon officer for the RSPB said: "It is a fantastic opportunity for someone to name two of the chicks which have become so famous in Worcester.

"It is very exciting that people can have the chance to name them. I don't think Worcester has had two more famous birds and I hope that residents will take up the challenge in naming them."

To enter, all you have to do is fill out the form in today's print edition of the Worcester News and either hand it in to the RSPB stall beneath St Andrew's Spire, or post your entries to Claire Fry, Worcester News, Hylton Road, Worcester, WR2 5JX, marking your entry Falcon Chicks Competition.

You can also text us your entries. Start your message with FALCON, leave a space, then send it to 80360.

Messages cost 25p plus your normal operator text charge.

The competition closes at midnight on Friday, May 23. Service provided by Newsquest Media Group.

Volunteers from the charity will be at the spire from Wednesday, May 14, until Sunday, May 18, and from Wednesday, May 21, until Friday, May 23, to collect your suggested names.

The winner/winners will receive a framed print of a peregrine falcon, an RSPB Handbook of British Birds and also appear in the Worcester News. To watch the chicks via nestcam click here.

Fact file

• The peregrine is the largest of British breeding falcons
  
• Peregrines typically pair for several years and may live up to 10 years old
  
• The oldest Peregrine on record was 15-and-a-half years old
  
• Both adult birds tend the young
  
• The young take their first flight five or six weeks after hatching
  
• Peregrine's feed on other birds, which they catch in high-speed aerial stoops
  
• The fastest peregrine was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records reaching 217mph
  
• Their name comes from the Latin peregrinus, meaning wanderer
  
• The birds are among a very small group of species that can be found on every continent in the world except Antarctica
  
• Peregrines are protected under UK law.