Metro

City officials tag peregrine falcons living near Bayonne Bridge

26.1n003.falcons1.C--300x300.jpg

(Steve White)

In what might be the city’s smallest one-room apartment, these 25-day-old peregrine falcons huddle yesterday in their perch near the Bayonne Bridge.

Adorable Archie and sister Juliette live in a “nest” on a landing near the Staten Island bridge, along with their sharp-beaked parents.

Like any New Yorkers, mom and dad didn’t appreciate strangers poking around the young family’s sparcely feathered pad.

“They were flying around, squawking at us,” said Ron Marsico, a spokesman with the Port Authority, who was monitoring the birds yesterday as part of a conservation program.

The PA, which manages the Bayonne Bridge, constructed the boxy nest on a tower rising from the water just next to the bridge.

Despite all the fluttering, a biologist with the city’s Department of Environmental Protection managed to tag the fluff balls so they can be monitored in a state program to boost their population. Efforts like those have helped the endangered birds thrive in recent years, particularly in New York City.

The birds of prey are drawn to the city for the same reasons as humans: there’ are plenty of food options — pigeons, starlings, blackbirds, blue jays an dother goodies — as well as skyscrapers and tall bridges make good perches for hunting.

Other falcons roost in the Brooklyn and Verrazano-Narrows bridges, the MetLife Building in Midtown, and at Riverside Church in upper Manhattan.