On August 29, the monument "Peregrine Falcons on the roof of Uralsib" was inaugurated in Ufa. This sculptural composition was a gift from Uralsib Bank to the capital of Bashkiria in the year of its 450th anniversary.
The new city monument is dedicated to the Red Book peregrine falcons, which have been nesting and breeding their offspring annually on the roof of a high-rise bank building in Ufa for more than 18 years. The 3.3–meter-high sculptural composition is made of metal in mosaic technique - it is assembled from many details, each of which repeats the contour of the map of Bashkortostan. The bank building itself, where peregrine falcons nest, is depicted in a sculpture in the form of a rock, which these birds of prey usually choose for their habitat in the wild. According to the authors, this is a symbol of how peregrine falcons perceive the bank building as a rocky area that provides them with a safe habitat. The monument is installed in the new Central Park, located in the immediate vicinity of the bank building, where the family of falcons nests.
Falcons have been nesting on the roof of the bank in Ufa for about two decades, and since 2019 the bank has been conducting a traditional annual online broadcast of the life of the peregrine falcon family - with the support of the regional branch of the Russian Geographical Society in Bashkortostan and a group of ornithologists of the Ufa Bird Atlas project. The video stream is on the bank's VKontakte page. Here you can also watch recordings of the broadcast and a short film about peregrine falcons on the roof of the bank.
During the video surveillance, a family of peregrine falcons living on the roof of the Uralsib Bank building had eleven chicks, two of which returned to Bashkiria. Live viewers see the period of the chicks' appearance, their first attempts to "stand on the wing". Previous broadcasts have gained a huge number of views and received feedback from ornithologists from around the world. The broadcast is launched annually about a week before the chicks appear, and it goes on continuously until the departure of young peregrine falcons from the "nest". At the end of the season, the record of observations is transferred to the Bashkir branch of the Union for the Protection of Birds of Russia for further ornithological research.
Uralsib takes care of its winged wards, annually providing them with comfortable conditions for hatching chicks: by the return of the falcon family, the site must be thoroughly cleaned of the remnants of prey and traces of nesting last season, the embankment layer on the roof ledge is updated, drainage is checked. At the same time, the bank's employees make every effort not to disturb the birds during nesting, declaring a "moratorium" on household work on the roof and facade of the bank during this period. Even window cleaning and landscaping of the ledge, where the peregrine falcon family is usually located, are carried out, adjusting to the schedule of arrival of birds.
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