Rare, white falcon stares into camera set up to capture northern lights in Churchill
A bird that is rarely spotted is being seen by thousands in a video taken in Churchill, Man. and posted to Facebook.
Heidi den Haan, assistant director of the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, said the bird is a white gyrfalcon, which is “very unique.”
“They’re not that common to begin with but they hang out here in the wintertime,” she said.
On Tuesday, explore.org, a multimedia organization that documents nature around the globe, posted the video to Facebook. It shows the falcon yawning and subsequently looking straight into the camera.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the video had 4,500 likes and counting.
“It’s almost like a photo bomb,” den Haan said, laughing, adding the camera is set up through explore.org to capture the northern lights.
“It’s kind of fun that at night you get the northern lights and during the day you’re getting this bird.”
According to den Haan, the falcon was there long before the camera and because birds are territorial, it keeps coming back. The height of the tower is another reason it likes to be there, she said.
“There’s not a lot of height around Churchill. The trees are … small so any kind of a tower would be preferable for the bird to sit on,” she said.
