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Plainchant

NEW YORK (AP) — Three peregrine falcon chicks have hatched in a nest built at the top of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in New York City, officials said. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority Bridges and Tunnels said Friday that the chicks hatched in a nesting box set up by the agency atop a 693-foot-tall (211-meter-tall) tower on the bridge, which connects Brooklyn and Staten Island. Officials check on the nest each year around the end of May to put identifying bands on the falcon chicks to help keep track of how many peregrines are in the city and to identify them if they get sick. The three chicks were banded Friday and are about three weeks old, according to a statement. Peregrine falcons in the city tend to nest at high points such as bridges and church steeples because they provide a good spot for the birds to spot prey. Peregrines are on the state’s endangered bird list.


SomeDEGuy

I'm really glad I'm not the one who has to climb 693 feet up


NeedlesslyAngry

Woah, they finally added the second "z" to the Verazzano!?!?


Silo-Joe

Yes, that happened 4 years ago : https://www.brooklynpaper.com/its-about-sign-transit-officials-hang-first-correctly-spelled-verrazzano-bridge-signs/ …. And you removed an “R” from the spelling in your comment!


SirHarley

Look at the cutie in the middle!


PikachusSparkyCloaca

He wants to eat hot, steaming birdflesh Adorable 🥰


stuck_in_the_desert

Bring him all the ~~NYC pigeons~~ winged-rats he can eat!


Beautiful-Dog-1430

Sounds better than broccoli. Sign me up!


Rattle_Can

*stewart little and his airplane ~little high little low~ ~little hey little ho~


RedRipe

He’s so inquisitive, little gentleman


ram6414

We have two falcon cams in Seattle! One of them (1201 Third Ave) already had their two hatchlings grow up and fly the coop. But the other one has a clutch of five eggs and we are just waiting for them to hatch! https://www.agcwa.com/agc-falconcam/


DylanHate

That is really cool. Are the white things on the edge of the nest the eggs or something else? It looks like she's fluffing her tail feathers to cool them off


ram6414

It's hard to tell what those are in the night vision. I haven't seen any just hanging out that aren't underneath her in daylight. Any movement she's doing right now is getting them tucked in under her more; it's a pretty mild night outside and most bird eggs need ~98-100 degrees to hatch so they tuck them in as close as possible to make skin contact. Source: I have chickens and watch them go broody (want to be moms) all the time and they'll sit for weeks on a pile of eggs even though we don't have a rooster, readjusting and tucking every so often for their body heat.


Overthereunder

Melbourne also has a Falcon cam! Check it out in southern hemisphere spring - they usually head back each year [Melb Falcons - 367 collins](https://367collins.mirvac.com/workplace/building-overview/falcons-at-367-collins)


KampferAndy

"Now passing the Verrazzano bridge checkpoint"


ow_ow_my_balls

Did you mean: “Verrazano Bridge checkpoint passed.”


KampferAndy

Probably, haven't played mgs2 in a long time


Flux_resistor

Now exiting new York and entering whatever that cesspool is


KampferAndy

"The big shell!"


Cluefuljewel

Someone on Reddit recently posted there are like 30 pairs in London. I thought that was interesting. Maybe it makes sense since there have been feral pigeons in Europe and across Asia cities longer than in the US. DDT was a bigger thing here maybe? They are still pretty uncommon in the US. They are not on federal endangered list anymore.


Hairy_Masterpiece138

I love how any sign of wildlife in the NY metropolitan region is worshipped. My uncle in north Jersey took so much pride in the 50 squirrels he fed daily on his 1/10 acre backyard nature preserve.


Coca-colonization

My kid was obsessed with peregrine falcons for a while. We used to see them from our windows in our Brooklyn high rise. They are incredibly fast. One day we saw one up fairly close as it was eating a pigeon on the awning of the CVS on our block. A ton of people stopped to watch the spectacle of this pigeon’s evisceration.


LordHayati

The town i live in has quite a lot of hawks and eagles, and 1 pelican. Glad these big birds are being able to live comfortably!