Birds-eye View of a Peregrine Falcon Nest

In past years, our web cam has shown a nest on the 51st-floor balcony of a downtown Atlanta office building.  Because of the need for equipment upgrades, the camera is currently disabled. We will re-establish this behind-the-scenes look at Georgia’s highest-flying falcons for an upcoming nesting season.

The nesting falcons and the web cam have been generously hosted by the law firm of McKenna, Long & Aldridge, which occupies the top floors of the building.  The nest is located in a large planter box containing small bushes.  The planter makes an ideal nest site because it provides a soft substrate, offers some protection from the elements and is too high up for any natural predators.  Peregrine falcons typically mate for life.   

Peregrine Falcons in Georgia

DDT, a chemical widely used for the control of insects during the mid 1900s, apparently had the residual effect of  decimating some predatory bird populations.  Peregrine falcons, bald eagles, ospreys and brown pelicans suffered tremendous declines.  By the 1960s, of the estimated 400 peregrine nests present in the eastern U.S. just a few years earlier, none existed. Until the mid-1990s, the last and only documented peregrine nest in Georgia was in Cloudland Canyon (Dade County) in 1942.

Following the prohibition of DDT use in this country in 1972, protection under The Endangered Species Act in 1973 and a widespread program to release captive-bred birds through a technique known as "hacking," peregrines begin to once again grace eastern skies. The first peregrine release in Georgia consisted of four young birds that were hacked on Bell Mountain (Towns County) in 1988. A similar release had been attempted in 1987 at Mount Yonah (White County) but the effort was abandoned after a rat snake killed one of the three young falcons before it was released from the hack box.

The peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) is well known for being possibly the fastest animal in the world, capable of attaining speeds in excess of 200 mph in a dive. This high speed is used for pursuing and capturing the flying birds that compose the peregrine's diet.

Peregrine falcons normally nest on remote cliffs. The historical nesting range barely extended into northern Georgia because suitable nesting sites did not exist south of there. However, the recovering population has found a suitable substitute for rocky cliffs - massive human-built structures such as tall buildings and bridges. A significant proportion of all peregrine nests are now found on structures such as the one that you can see on our Web cam.

In the wild, great horned owls are about the only enemy faced by peregrine falcons. Owls are not much of a problem in urban settings, but collisions with plate glass windows take a toll, particularly on inexperienced juveniles.

The web camera has been made possible by a donation from The Garden Club of Georgia, Inc.  Founded in 1928, The Garden Club of Georgia, Inc. (GCG) promotes beautification, conservation and education. GCG also provides annual scholarships for Georgia students pursuing environmentally related fields of study. Youth environmental education efforts are a strong focus for GCG, as well as many conservation outreach projects. For more information about The Garden Club of Georgia, please visit their website, www.uga.edu/gardenclub

A special thank you to McKenna, Long & Aldridge for their cooperation and help in allowing us access to the falcon nest.