“What’s this bird, this falcon, that everybody’s steamed up about?” asks Humphrey Bogart as private eye Sam Spade.
I could say the same thing about the breeding peregrine falcons that for 30 years have been captivating people on the busy streets of Melbourne.
By coincidence after visiting the peregrine nesting site high on a building in Colins St recently, I joined a friend who is a movie buff at a screening of the film noir classic, The Maltese Falcon in which Humphrey Bogart utters the line about the mysterious bird.
Instead of trying to unravel the film’s complex plot, I was more interested in the Maltese falcon itself, a valuable artifact that everyone seemed to be determined to get their hands on.
In real life, the story of the Medieval bejewelled statuette still remains clouded in mystery. It was presented to the Spanish ruler of Malta in 1539 by crusading knights, as a tribute for his permission to use the Mediterranean island during the crusades in the Holy Land.
As my friend waxed lyrical about the film, saying it is one of the greatest in the film noir genre, I complained that the screenwriters had somehow missed the point, as had the crusading Knights Templar of Malta.
What the Emperor Charles V had in mind when he requested a tribute was not a valuable work of art depicting a falcon but a real bird of prey, in all probability a peregrine, the fastest hunter of the skies. The emperor was seeking something “precious” that could not be measured in mere coin.
Besides eagles, no group of birds have had a greater impact in human history as symbols of power and prestige, as the peregrines and other falcons.
Early forms of falconry go back at least 2000 years in the Middle East and the activity in the Arab world still retains its status as the domain of kings and sheikhs.
Falcons were originally trained as an aid to hunting and the sport of falconry soon emerged, developing in parallel in the Middle East, China, India and Central Asia, and Europe later.
As falconry evolved, it became a medium of art in painting and sculpture, and decoration. The hoods placed on falcons when they were not working were of gilded leather, often embossed with the coat of arms of the falconer. These decorations persist to this day.
Which brings me back to the Melbourne peregrines. As I write, tens of thousands of people across the world have been viewing the pair rearing three young on Colins St.
But you do not have to travel to the mainland to see these amazing birds which still inspire rivalries and intrigue among Arab oil sheikhs. Far from the Middle East and Central Asia, two peregrine males have been observed sparring for territory in the sky above Hobart this spring.