Isis is our only Peregrine Falcon Avian Ambassador. She was brought to the Wildlife Center in Espanola in 2004 with a badly broken wing and eventually her wingtip was amputated.

Isis, our Peregrine Falcon, in a gorgeous photograph by Doug Brown

We don’t know how Isis injured her wing, but it could have been from a dive gone wrong. Peregrine Falcons are the fastest animals on the planet and have been clocked at speeds over 240 mph! They reach these incredible speeds when they are dive-bombing their prey in a maneuver called a stoop.

Peregrine Falcons are the fastest animals on the planet: over 3 times faster than a cheetah!

Because Isis was an adult when she was injured, we do not know how old she is. Once raptors molt their juvenile feathers and grow their adult ones, it becomes impossible to determine their age.

Isis’s wing was amputated at the wrist, so she cannot fly.

Isis is named after an Egyptian Goddess, often depicted as having wings, who is said to be the mother of the falcon-headed God, Horus.