UPDATE ON 22 MAY 2019: On May 20 Lori Maggio got a photo of the chicks and Art McMorris was able to age them so the Call To Action below is no longer desperate. Stop by if you get a chance and you might get a great photo of peregrines.

Can you spare five minutes to look at the back of a building in Downtown Pittsburgh?

This year’s peregrine nest is again at Third Avenue, only 12 stories high. The location is so low that on first flight, a few of the chicks always land on the street and have to be placed on the Rescue Porch to start over.  I’d like to schedule a Downtown Fledge Watch to help these youngsters, but I don’t know when they’ll reach the Fledge Watch stage. That’s where you come in.

Several days before young peregrines fly, they appear at the nest opening (location of yellow arrow).

It only takes five minutes — with binoculars or camera — to stop by the Third Avenue sidewalk at the edge of the Carlyle parking lot and look up at the nest opening.  Is there a juvenile there? If so, leave a comment on this blog.  Please take a picture. I’ll get an expert to look at your photo and tell us the age of the chicks.

What to look for: Juveniles are brown-and-cream-colored birds like the ones in this closeup from 2016. When they first appear, they’ll have downy white fuzz clinging to them.

Don’t confuse them with their parents. The adults are sleek charcoal gray and white, like this.

There’s no need to linger.  All it takes is five minutes. Let me know what you see.

(photo of Third Avenue site by Kate St. John. photos of Downtown peregrines by Lori Maggio)

Yesterday morning, 14 May 2019, two male peregrine chicks were banded at the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning.  Here’s the story in pictures by Peter Bell with additions from John English, Kim Getz and the National Aviary falconcam.

This spring is the fourth year Hope and Terzo have nested at Pitt and the fourth year their chicks have been banded, so they knew something was about to happen when they heard the event assembling indoors.

Hope was especially vigilant and a very protective mother. She stood on the nest between her chicks and Lead Bander Dan Brauning of the PA Game Commission and would not leave! Dan had to gently brush her away before he could place the chicks in a box for safe transport.

Fortunately PGC Biologist Sam Ruano had Dan’s back while Hope flew back and forth, strafing the area just above the soft broom that Sam held up as her target (rather than their heads).

Indoors, the chicks were given health checks (both healthy), weighed to determine their sex (both male), and given two leg bands: a black/green color band that can be read from a distance, and a silver USFW band.

Dan permitted me to stick a bit of colored tape on the USFW silver bands so that observers can tell the birds apart on the falconcam and with binoculars: Red for chick#1 (C1), Yellow for chick#2 (C2). The tape will fall off within a year but we’ll find it useful in the meantime.

The chicks were returned to the nest in less than half an hour and Hope immediately came to protect them. Dan wrapped up indoors with a Q&A and showed us the unhatched egg.

The peregrines also received a lot of media attention:

• KDKA video: Falcon Chicks Get Banded At Cathedral Of Learning
• Post-Gazette: Annual checkup: Peregrine falcon chicks at the Cathedral of Learning get exam
• Trib-Live: Peregrine falcon chicks banded at Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning
• WPXI: Falcon chicks nesting on the Cathedral of Learning to get health exam

Watch them on the National Aviary falconcam at Univ. of Pittsburgh.

(photos by Peter Bell, John English, Kim Getz and the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

Today, 14 May 2019, is banding day for the peregrine falcon chicks at the Cathedral of Learning. The event is closed to the public (the room has a very strict occupancy limit!) but you’ll see some of the action on camera.

The first hint will be the sound of “kakking” as Hope and Terzo react when Dan Brauning of the Pennsylvania Game Commission goes out on the ledge to retrieve the chicks.

The chicks will receive health checks and leg bands and be returned to the nest in less than half an hour.

Stay tuned for photos and an update on who’s who.

p.s. In this photo from Sunday May 12 you can see that the chicks are getting a lot to eat. The dark bulge on each chest is “dinner” stored in the crop. When the crop is full it expands so much that the skin shows between the feathers.

(photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ .of Pittsburgh)

Today the Pitt peregrine chicks are 16 days old, fluffy white and weighing 1 to 1.5 pounds depending on sex. Male peregrines are always lightweight (about 1 pound at this age). Female peregrines are the heavy ones. We can’t weigh them visually so we don’t know their sexes.

You can’t see it on camera yet but the chicks’ flight feathers have just begun to emerge. It will be another four days before we’ll see the dark edges of their coming feathers. By then they’ll also have feathered faces.

Like all babies, these two spend their days eating and sleeping. In this Day In A Minute from Tuesday May 7 they have a very active moment at the front of the nest around 6pm.

The older they get the more active they’ll be. Watch them on the National Aviary falconcam at Univ. of Pittsburgh.

(video from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)