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.

20 April 2026

Peregrine falcons are incubating at many sites in Southwestern Pennsylvania and eggs have already hatched at Tarentum Bridge. Here’s a summary of the latest news.

Map legend: Dark blue=bridge sites, Red=building sites, Pale blue=no success in 2025

Site List and latest activity. Yellow=fledglings last year. Bold=recent update. Scroll to see entire spreadsheet

Activity in the region:

Cathedral of Learning, Univ of Pittsburgh:

Carla and Ecco’s eggs are due to hatch some time soon between the 24th and 28th of April. Watch the National Aviary falconcam and you may be the first to see it!

East Liberty Presbyterian Church steeple:

Alas! On 8 April Ed Moore confirmed what peregrine monitor Adam Knoerzer had suspected. The nest has failed because it blew away in a storm in late March. Read all about it here: East Liberty Peregrines’ Nest is Gone

Downtown Pittsburgh, 3rd Avenue:

On 3 April Jeff Cieslak confirmed that this year’s pair at the Third Avenue Downtown nest is the same as last year: Terzo and the dark female.

He also confirmed they are incubating!

Eckert Street / BRUNOT ISLAND / McKees Rocks Bridge, Ohio River:

On 2 April Jeff confirmed a courting pair of peregrines at the Brunot Island RR Bridge. His photos show that the male is the same one he spotted at the West End Bridge over the winter. This male has the same distinctive “backwards” bands (silver on the wrong leg).

The pair did a prey exchange and the chocolate brown female flew away with the meal. Is she immature or could she be another, darker version of the Downtown female?

Sewickley Bridge, Ohio River:

The Sewickley Bridge pair is incubating so while one is in the nest the other is off duty. Jeff photographed both of them on 3 April.

Tarentum Bridge, Allegheny River:

Happy news at Tarentum Bridge!

On 16 April 2026: She appears to be feeding hatchlings. The timing is right. I estimated tomorrow the 17th as a possible hatch day.

— Facebook update from Dave Brooke 16 April 2026

Westinghouse Bridge, Turtle Creek, Monongahela Watershed: No news since 10 March 2026

After so many years with no reports from the I-70 Speers/Belle Vernon Bridge, a peregrine was seen there last Sunday. Nicklas Hostetter must have been driving by when he saw it: https://ebird.org/checklist/S324182139.

A Big Thanks to Jeff Cieslak who has monitored the majority of these sites(!) and for allowing me to use his photos.

12 April 2026

Adam Knoerzer monitoring every day. On 9 March he watched them fly around their territory and on 19 March he saw them bowing at the nest.

But on 2 April Adam wrote, “Dead quiet all week at East Liberty. Haven’t seen a single falcon the three times I’ve dropped by this week between 4-6pm.” It also looked like the sticks were gone.

Peregrine absence in those first days of April is not normal. In prior years the female laid eggs during that time. We wondered what was happening so Adam asked Ed Moore at East Liberty Presbyterian Church if he could check on the nest area.

On 8 April Ed sent the photo at right below and wrote, “Hi, Adam. Nothing up there. This pic is the ledge they were on last year. I checked all four corners and nothing.”

Two photos below show Before and After. At left is the nest with young in 2025. Notice the substrate that’s almost like mulch. At right is the same area now, circled in blue. It is completely empty.

What happened? My guess is the Wind!

The peregrines were using the remnants of a former red-tailed hawks’ nest which was built on the sloped steeple and held up by big sticks rimming the outside. The nest was located on the northeast corner which provided the best protection from Pittsburgh’s prevailing southwest winds as well as strong west winds.

In this Google satellite screenshot the steeple has a yellow arrow pointing to the nest location and green arrows for west winds. Unfortunately the nest was not protected from strong north winds, turquoise arrows below.

March was a stormy month with at least two storms that took down trees that blocked the roads. Statistics from one of those storms shows how bad the wind was.

On the night of 31 March a thunderstorm began with strong west winds at 43mph gusting to 58mph at 11:45pm. Five minutes later the wind had switched to the north gusting to 52 mph for another five minutes. The north wind is certainly a threat to the nest … if it was still there by that point.

Late in March or early April the East Liberty peregrines became homeless and had to find a new nest site because the female was ready to lay eggs. They could see a prime nest site not many miles away — the Cathedral of Learning — but it was already occupied. What to do? Harass the current residents to make them leave.

Apparently that harassment is in progress but it isn’t working yet. Over the past two weeks I’ve seen Carla and Ecco both step away from the eggs for a few moments to check the sky. Sometimes the parent on the eggs leaves the nest and the other one arrives. At one point when it was quite warm they were both gone for about an hour.

For Carla and Ecco retaining the nest site is more important than anything and they will put their all into it. Ideally the former East Liberty peregrines will find a nearby bridge to their liking.