17 May 2026
By mid May, southwestern Pennsylvania’s peregrines have chicks that are growing by leaps and bounds.
This year we don’t have as many known active nests due to lack of observers and lack of reports on eBird, so I’ve reduced the peregrine map to six active sites though we have no recent reports on two of them: Monaca and Westinghouse. I am hopeful.
Site List and latest activity. There are probably more than the four sites. (Yellow = active nest in 2026, including one failed nest. Boldface dates are May 2026.) Maybe the solo peregrines reported at West End Bridge/North Shore area and Sharpsburg Marina are nesting somewhere. Observers needed!
Map legend: Dark blue=bridge sites, Red=building sites, Pale blue=no success as of May 2026
There is happy news at the active sites. It’s always fun to see baby birds.
Activity in the region:
Cathedral of Learning, Univ of Pittsburgh:
As of yesterday the four chicks at Pitt are three weeks old. In the photo at top you can see their primaries and tail feathers growing. They now have “faces.”
Downtown Pittsburgh, 3rd Avenue:
On 11 May Jeff Cieslak and I watched the female apparently brooding while the male watched from above. The pair even did a nest exchange.
On 15 May Jeff got a photo of an adult feeding nestling(s), taken from Bigbee Field 0.77 miles away. Heat shimmer at that distance makes it difficult to get a clear shot.
Since we don’t know the hatch date, we will have to start regularly checking from street level to so see them at the ledge opening whenever they appear.
East Liberty Presbyterian Church steeple: Nest failed at the end of March. Read more here.
Sewickley Bridge, Ohio River:
The adults are very watchful now that they have young in the nest.
Today, 17 May, Jeff Cieslak saw four young. They look to be the same age as the Pitt peregrine chicks.
The adults are very busy with food deliveries.
Tarentum Bridge, Allegheny River:
These chicks are about the same age as the Pitt peregrines so they’ll be at the front of the box by the end of May and will fly in early June.
Here’s Dave Brooke’s video, posted on Facebook. Also see Pittsburgh Falconuts: Tarentum Bridge peregrines feeding, 16 May 2026.
NOTE: If you’re viewing this on mobile and cannot see the video: A Facebook bug prevents displaying of embedded Facebook posts on some mobile devices. Until Meta fixes it click here to see Dave’s video.
The recent status table at top is just a screenshot taken on 17 May 2026. Here’s the up-to-date table if you’re reading this many months later.
Hi Kate, there appears to be a typo in the first table near the top. For the Tarentum site it says ‘hatch approx. 3/16’ though you say later that those chicks appear to be about the same age as the Pitt chicks so I’m guessing that should be 4/16.
Thanks for pointing that out, J. I accidentally put egg-date there instead of hatch.
Wonderful information and incredible pictures, Kate. Thanks to you and all who keep an eye on these beautiful creatures.
Have any of the chicks banded at Pitt been seen elsewhere after fledging? I wonder how far they travel to find their own territory.
Colleen, I’ve posted a spreadsheet of where our region’s banded peregrines have been found after dispersal. For peregrines, the males tend to nest close to where they grew up while the females disperse widely. Click here and scroll down to see the spreadsheet.