The female of the pair of peregrine falcons currently nesting at the top of the Roger-Gaudry pavilion tower at the University of Montreal has laid a total of four eggs in recent days. Hatching could begin around mid-May, if all goes well.
Internet users who follow live what is happening at the peregrine falcon nest have noticed that the female, named “Eve”, laid a total of four eggs between April 6 and 13. It is also mainly she who incubates the eggs in the nest, made up of a simple wooden box lined with gravel.
The male, named “Miro”, is mainly busy bringing her food, including pigeons. It nevertheless broods for a few hours a day, according to what we can observe on the Youtube channel “Faucons UdeM en direct”.
In around thirty days, the first falcon hatchings could take place. Last year, two of the four eggs produced chicks, but none ultimately survived.
Over the years, around thirty falcons have been born at the top of the tower, which has so far hosted two breeding females since the installation of the nest box in 2009.
As for the young people born on the grounds of the University of Montreal, we cannot always know what happened to them afterwards, even if they all have a ring for their identification. Some nested in the Turcot interchange area, and one of the young falcons was found injured in New York State, then later released.
Peregrine falcons also nest on the structure of several bridges in the Montreal region. This is particularly the case for the Jacques-Cartier and Honoré-Mercier bridges. On this bridge, falcons were born earlier this month.
Great comeback
The observation of peregrine falcons at the University of Montreal, or in other urban sites such as the Honoré-Mercier or Jacques-Cartier bridges, would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. You should know that at the beginning of the 1970s, the species had completely disappeared from southern Quebec.
In the past, the peregrine falcon was indeed decimated, mainly due to the massive use of DDT, a very toxic pesticide which caused chronic reproductive problems in these birds.
But after the ban on DDT, the numbers of these raptors ended up increasing during the 1990s, in particular because of their ability to adapt to urban environments.
“Birds have demonstrated resilience and adaptability, notably through rapid expansion into cities where they take advantage of urban nesting sites and prey,” noted the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada in an assessment published in 2017 which classified the species as “not at risk”.
Even though its situation has greatly improved in Canada, the species still faces certain threats, including collisions with high-voltage lines, cars or building windows, disturbance by climbing (the falcon often nests on the side of cliffs) hikers as well as wind turbines.