The Fisheries and Wildlife Club at Michigan State University has announced the winning names from a contest to name four peregrine falcon chicks.
A falcon named Freyja laid four eggs earlier this year in the nest box at the top of Spartan Stadium.
The Fisheries and Wildlife Club held a contest at its annual chili cookoff to select names for the future chicks. The cookoff helps raise funds for the club and the falcons.
Club President Molly Engelman says the organization wanted to ensure community members felt included in the process.
“We got six names from an elementary school in the Jonesville Community School District, and we picked this school because there was a group of students at this elementary school that actually built their own falcon box last year, modeled after the MSU falcon box.” Engelman said.
The winning names are: Pickles, Egbert, Muhammad and Swooper.
“We’ll band them, and those names will go on official record, so it's pretty exciting to have that be a part of conservation and have a lasting impact,” Engelman said.
Engelman expects the falcon eggs to hatch in May.