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.

14 May 2026

Yesterday the peregrine chicks at the Cathedral of Learning added motoring to their daily eat and sleep routine. Last week they began moving around at the back of the box but yesterday all four traveled the entire nestbox surface.

Carla watched them from the safety of the green perch.

By the end of the day they were actively pursuing their parents for food. At dusk Ecco brought in a large prey item, probably a pigeon. At first the chicks stood patiently while he fed them.

But after the first chick was fully fed (she’s standing in back) the other three broke ranks and crowded Ecco.

During this 5-minute segment from their 20-minute feeding, they snatched food from each other’s mouths and Ecco ran out of food. He stepped away and less than a minute later Carla arrived with more.

Motoring and growing require a lot of energy. It takes two parents to feed four hungry chicks.

10 May 2026

As of yesterday, Hatch Day was two weeks ago at the Pitt peregrine nest. Let’s look at their Week 2 development in a photo-per-day slideshow from the National Aviary’s Cathedral of Learning falconcam. The date span is 3 May to 9 May 2026.

This week’s big accomplishments were completion of their second down, the start of flight feathers, and motoring around on the nest.

At 8 days: The chicks begin to grow their second down. They are so big now that their parents stand close but do not brood them as they did last week. The chicks’ primary wing feathers begin to grow (not noticeable yet).

At 10 days: Second down is complete. Chicks begin to grow tail feathers (retrices) though these are not visible on camera yet. They break the huddle on warm days.

At 12 days: On the chicks’ faces, their ear is now distinct. It looks like a black spot on the cheek behind the eye.

At 14 Days = 2 weeks: Flight feathers growing on wings and tail are visible now, circled in the photo below. From Day 14 forward a chick can be aged by measuring his tail feathers which grow 2mm per day. The chicks moved off the scrape and sit like Buddhas.

Activity at the nest will pick up next week.

Watch this growing family on the National Aviary falconcam at the University of Pittsburgh.

6 May 2026

Early last week many of us noticed a long feather at the nest. Where did it come from? Not from prey. On Tuesday 27 April, Carla preened vigorously and pulled it away from her wing.

24 hours later the discarded feather was near the chicks as Carla fed them. A smaller feather was visible as well (photo at top with arrows). Carla is molting but Ecco is not.

Male and female peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) that are resident in the mid-latitudes molt at slightly different times. Females molt their primary wing feathers while they’re incubating eggs and brooding young (March-May) because their mates are doing all the hard flying to provide food. The males molt their primaries in July after teaching the young to hunt.

Read more about molting at Time to Molt written in July 2022. Peregrine falcons are the last bird in the article.

p.s. Peregrine molt information can be found at:

• Experience of Chad+Chris Saladin (C&C’s Ohio Peregrines) posted on to the Rochester Falconcam forum.
• Birds of the World: Peregrine Falcon molts.
• Remigial Molt Patterns In North American Falconiformes As Related To Age, Sex, Breeding Status, And Life-History Strategies by Peter Pyle published in The Condor 107:823–834, 2005.
• Moult FAQs at Raptors ID

3 May 2026

Hatch Day at the Pitt peregrine nest was just over a week ago so now’s a good time to see how the chicks have grown.

This slideshow from the National Aviary’s Cathedral of Learning falconcam displays one photo per day from 25 April through 2 May 2026.

There are subtle changes in the day-by-day photos.

At Hatching: 35-40 grams, feeble, damp, pink, sparse down, eyes closed except when begging, open eye is slit-like.

On Hatch Day: The fourth egg hatched on 27 April; the chick was dry within an hour. Five hours later the newest chick (in green circle) was standing up for a feeding with his siblings.

At 5 days: Weight has doubled since hatch day, sits up, open eye is round. No second down yet.

At 6 days: Second down begins on wings (humeral and alar tracts, dorsal surface of wing).

At 7 Days = 1 week: Second down begins on abdomen and legs (femoral and crural tracts), chicks form a huddle in the nest scrape, can sit up but still wobbly. Sleep in a pile.

Yesterday when the chicks were one week old, one of them opened his wings while sleeping in the pile under Carla’s breast. I’ve marked up this photo to show feather development along his wing.

See photos of their expected development at: Peregrine chicks week-to-week development in pictures.

Watch the chicks grow on the National Aviary falconcam at the University of Pittsburgh.

28 April 2026

Yesterday afternoon the fourth and last egg hatched at the Pitt peregrine nest high atop the Cathedral of Learning. It’s emergence was evident at 1:05pm when Carla pulled the eggshell out from under her.

Twenty minutes later we could see the fourth chick drying to the left of the other three chicks during a feeding.

At the 5:30pm feeding it was hard to see all four at once. Here’s the best I could find –> three heads and the fourth’s back. The smallest head is the newest chick.

This Day in a Minute timelapse video shows their activities yesterday from 7am to 7pm. Carla spent most of the time brooding. Notice that in the morning her back was hunched as she waited for #4 to hatch.

Watch this family of six on the National Aviary falconcam at the University of Pittsburgh.

27 April 2026

UPDATE 26 April afternoon: The 4th (last) egg hatched at 1:05pm today.

Every day is pretty much the same for the three chicks at the Pitt peregrine nest: eat and sleep. While they sleep we can’t see them because their mother Carla broods them. However, they were visible yesterday at 1:51pm as they nodded off waiting for a long feeding session to begin.

The session lasted 16 minutes; I’ve edited it down to 6 minutes. Who’s on camera?

• Carla shelters the chicks and hears Ecco wail to say “Food’s here!” She leaves to get it.
• The chicks nod off while they wait.
• Carla returns and feeds them, then she takes out the garbage.
• Ecco arrives (without food) to shelter the chicks. He cleans some food off the beak of one of the chicks. Then he shelters them.
• Carla returns, Ecco leaves.

That was just one feeding. As you can see from this timelapse there were at least 2 others in 8 hours.

Watch this peregrine family on the National Aviary falconcam at the University of Pittsburgh.

25 April 2026

Carla and Ecco’s first hatchling of 2026 emerged last night at 11:03pm at the Cathedral of Learning peregrine nest. Hours later Carla stepped away and John English captured our first look at the bright-eyed chick (photo above and below). The chick’s eggshell is discarded in front and he’s propped on the three remaining eggs.

Becca Hansborough at the National Aviary was watching when Carla faced the camera and showed us the emerging chick on Friday night at 11:03pm.

Because peregrines delay incubation until the next-to-last egg is laid, the first three of Carla’s four eggs are expected to hatch within 24 hours, hence “Hatch Day.” The last egg will hatch about two days later because it was laid about two days after incubation began.

Right now, just before 6:00am on Saturday 25 April, Carla is waiting for her first nest exchange with Ecco. That will be our best chance to see the status of the eggs and chick.

Watch the growing Pitt peregrine family on the National Aviary falconcam as Hatch Day continues.

UPDATES throughout the day:

The chick had his first feeding at 6:18am. The remnants of his breakfast are a dark blob in front of Carla’s shoulder.

Second hatchling at 3:15pm (25 April).

Third hatchling at 6:02pm (25 April).

UPDATE on 26 April 2026

Ecco watches Carla feeding three chicks on 26 April 2026, 9:16am. 1 egg remains.

UPDATE on 27 April 2026

Last (4th) egg hatched on 27 April at 1:05pm

Friday, 24 April 2026

Since Thursday morning Carla has been very fidgety on the eggs, often hunched over them with her back feathers raised and her wings in a protective position. Before she settles down she rocks side to side and peers under her belly.

What is she looking at?

Carla can hear one or more of her chicks tapping inside their eggshells, working their way toward making a pip and ultimately hatching.

[From inside the egg] Hatching is an energetically demanding process. The young chick uses its egg tooth, a small knob on top of its bill, to hammer a pip (hole) in the egg. It periodically works to break the egg around the pip area, but rests much of the time. The entire process from initial pip to hatch can take up to 72 hours. All the eggs in a Peregrine Falcon clutch generally hatch “synchronously” (within 24–48 hours for a clutch of 4).

— Richmond Peregrine Falconcam FAQ

As expected, it is very hard to see what the eggs look like. Often the only way to know a chick has hatched is to see a broken eggshell beyond Carla’s sheltering body.

Here’s what a “hatch” looks like (this was in 2024): Wet chick, pipped egg (white spot), discarded eggshell.

Will today be Hatch Day at the Pitt peregrine nest?

Stay tuned to the National Aviary falconcam at the Cathedral of Learning to find out.