How about Moderna and Pfizer or Marner and Matthews as names for two baby falcons.

Community residents are being encouraged to send their choice of names to help name a pair of baby peregrine falcons.

The baby falcons hatched last month at Sun Life Financial Centre at Bloor and Islington, and the public’s input is sought to help name the hatchlings.

Bloor Islington Place in a social media post said it is “excited to welcome their resident peregrine falcons, Lucky and D’Arcy’s newborns on May 25.”

The names, as well as the sexes and weights of the newborns, will be revealed when a member of the Canadian Peregrine Foundation head to the top of the tower to attach a leg band to each chick.
“Due to COVID-19 restrictions currently in place, we will be foregoing a live banding and will be capturing footage and sharing instead,” organizers said.

The naming contest for the chicks runs until May 21 is open to all in the community.

“Submit a unisex name by commenting with your choice and why,” according to the promotion. “We will draw the winning names and introduce our new chicks next week.”

Some of the more popular entries submitted online so far includes: Moderna and Pfizer, Marner and Matthews, Kiwi and Apricot or Lightning and Feathers or Thistle and Fog.

The bands will help researchers keep track of the baby birds’ movements and survival with an identification number.

Banding is part of an international protocol to help conservationists collect data about falcon’s migratory patterns, survival and birth rates and has been taking place at this south Etobicoke site since 1997.

There are two other falcon sites in Etobicoke and 11 more in Toronto, but the one at Bloor and Islington Place can be viewed real time with the use of a falcon web cam.
The peregrine falcon nearly disappeared in Ontario in the 1960s due to a dangerous pesticide, DDT, leading to years of public attention and conservation efforts.