AIR FORCE ACADEMY, COLO. -- The Air Force Academy Cadet Falconry has added a new falcon to its ranks, a female White-Phase Gyrfalcon.
The Cadet Falconry program hatched the white gyrbeight weeks ago, and she has since grown to full size.
The new falcon will get her official name once all of the cadet falconers are back at the Academy in August.
Among the names being considered are Athena and Valkyrie.
Whatever name she winds up with, her mother is one well know around the Academy, Aurora.
Aurora is the official mascot of the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA).
She is a female White-Phase Gyrfalcon who came to the Academy in 1996.
White-Phase Gyrfalcons are extremely rare birds; their white coloring is only found in about one percent of the Gyrfalcon population.
White-Phase Gyrfalcons are most common in Northern Greenland and the Eastern Arctic, so she finds Colorado winters mild.
In the wild, Gyrfalcons can reach speeds of 80 mph in level flight, and hunt other birds in the air ranging in size from a pigeon to a Canada goose.
The Academy doesn't train its falcons to hunt, so the Academy's newest falcon will begin training this fall to become a flying performer for Academy home football games, and will then be used to make educational presentations to youth and school groups year-round.
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