#falconsforeveryone

🦅 After ULB's five chicks, it was now the turn of this season's other falcons from Falcons for Everyone to be ringed. 🦅

The Cathedral falcon, the first of the season, is a female! We could tell this from the length of her wings and her weight, but also from the fact that she has rather few feathers. She received two rings on 10 May: an official registration ring from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and a second, special ring, which allows identification from a distance.

After the "growth phase" - she now weighs 28 (!) times her birth weight - this young Peregrine now enters the phase of producing thousands of feathers of all different types. We can't wait to see her transformation in the coming days.

Check it out live 📱 and watch this curious chick walk her little feet along the balcony!

👉 For more details on her development: https://www.falconsforeveryone.be/blog/a-female-falcon-chick-at-the-cathedral

And what about the falcon at the St Job's Church? This spring, a new pair of Peregrine Falcons took over the place of the previous pair. That historic pair had been breeding there since 2015 and raised as many as 29 falcons. Possibly they both died, as Peregrine Falcons are by nature very loyal to their nesting sites ...

This pair of newcomers gave birth to 3 healthy female chicks in their first nest together! They were ringed on Friday 12 May. 🦅

🦅  Today, the five peregrine falcons chicks (3 females and 2 males) from the ULB have been ringed by our ornithologist Didier Vangeluwe. 🦅 Ringing is an important step in the monitoring and observation of wild birds. In addition to making it possible to recognize these Peregrine falcons if they later return to nest in the capital, ringing primarily ensures the monitoring of the birds’ evolving migratory routes: what migration strategies do they follow as natural areas change, affected by climate change and detoriation?   The ringing of birds also gives the opportunity to take samples that allow to study the dispersal of pathogens (influenza, West Nile), the concentrations of pollutants (heavy metals, pesticides) or genetic relationships. The collected data make it possible to establish legal rules for the conservation of wild birds.   Learn about the ringing of wild bird populations by BeBirds: https://odnature.naturalsciences.be/bebirds/en/why-ring-birds  

🦅  The 19th edition of Falcons For Everyone is on! 🦅 Spring is well and truly here, and with it, a new nesting season for the peregrine falcons.

During the next few weeks, you can follow the daily lives of three peregrine falcon pairs nesting in Brussels, through the live HD streaming, 24/7, of the cameras placed inside their nests:

🐣 One peregrine couple resides in the Saint Michael and Gudule Cathedral: They only laid one egg this year and it’s expected to hatch around April 10th.  

🐣 In the bell tower of the St. Job Church in Uccle, a new couple has settled in and is waiting for their four chicks to hatch around April 17.

🐣 the third couple nests on top of the tower of building A, on the campus of the ULB: the female has laid five eggs that should also hatch around April 17th. An exceptional situation, and a lot of babies to take care of!

Accompany these new parents and witness their young grow, from the little hatchling of 30 grams, up until their first flight as impressive birds who can reach up to one kilogram: You don’t want to miss this!

🦅  The single egg of the Peregrine Falcon pair at the Cathedral of Saints Michael and Gudule has hatched on Tuesday 18th of April, in the late afternoon. It is the first hatchling of the year ! A magical moment, but also one of relief, as we had been waiting for its arrival for over a week!

Hatching is a long and exhausting process; the chick is very cramped in the egg and has to rotate on itself to cut the top of the egg, millimeter by millimeter, in order to get out of it. After several hours of work, the young falcon is now resting under its mother's warm duvet: it is ready to enter six decisive weeks for its development, until its first flight out of the nest!  🐣

The next imminent hatching will soon occur at the ULB : we can already hear their first chick chirping in the egg!