4 peregrine chicks roost atop Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning, one of the city’s most prolific falcon nurseries
MARY ANN THOMAS
APR 29, 2026
4:00 AM
Carla and Ecco have their talons full with four peregrine falcon chicks at the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning after four eggs hatched recently.
Of the roughly half-dozen peregrine nesting sites in Allegheny County, the Oakland falcons are among the most prolific.
Prey doesn’t seem to be an issue at this “Taj Mahal” of peregrine nesting sites in the region, said Kate St. John, a longtime falcon monitor for the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
This formerly endangered bird, the fastest animal on earth, has prospered in the Pittsburgh region.
Dorothy, the most prolific female falcon in the state, resided at the Cathedral of Learning for many years, raising 43 chicks until she
went missing in 2015, according to St. John, an Oakland resident who chronicles the region’s peregrines in her blog,
Outside My Window.
She has been monitoring the Cathedral of Learning peregrines since the birds took up residence there about 25 years ago.
She believes that the lights of the Cathedral help the falcons capture migrating birds at night. Webcam viewers often check the next morning and “see all of that food” brought to the chicks.
For almost 20 years, the National Aviary has been sponsoring a
live webcam that documents the home life of the Cathedral of Learning peregrines.
“The Aviary’s spring seasonal theme, ‘Nesting in Nature,’ has focused on the intricacies of bird nesting behaviors and this season’s
PeregrineFalconCam livestream has truly embodied that,” National Aviaryornithologist Robert Mulvihill said in a press release.
“Viewers have had the opportunity to immerse themselves in the process of this budding peregrine family at every step, from Carla and Ecco’s magnetic pair bond to this first of four hopeful hatchings.”
Mulvihill and St. John regularly visit the nest site when the falcons aren’t breeding, and they have found some surprising skeletons in the falcons’closet.
“There are way more yellow-billed cuckoos. That doesn’t make sense given the density of cuckoos in the area,” St. John said.
Mulvihill added that the remains of many American woodcocks were found. The bird typically flies over Oakland only during migration.
“They may be specializing in nocturnal migrants and then some nights, there may be nothing,” he said. “There’s a lot not known about the foraging ecology of urban peregrines.”
Once the chicks hatch, the parents will care for their young at the nest for about six weeks, according to the Aviary. When they start to fly, they will
stay close to their parents, learning how to hunt and survive, until the end of summer, when they strike out on their own.
Other peregrine nests in the region with chicks or eggs include the Tarentum Bridge and a Third Avenue building in Downtown Pittsburgh. Other active sites include areas near the McKees Rocks, Sewickley and Monaca bridges, according to St. John.
A network of volunteers, coordinated by St. John, monitors sites in Allegheny County. But the number of volunteers drops off in surrounding counties. There are other nests that likely are undetected, she and Mulvihill said.
The number of peregrine falcon nests in Pittsburgh seems to have leveled off, Mulvihill said.
“There’s not a lot of room for them in Allegheny County, although it’s not impossible for a new pair to pop up,” he said.
The nests are often on the ledges of bridges, on tall buildings and towers or clustered along rivers.
“They are cliff-nesting birds. Their old name is ‘duck hawk’ because they eat waterfowl,” Mulvihill said.
In addition to a robust prey base, the birds look for high elevation for their nests and substrate like gravel.
To learn more about local peregrine falcons, visit the aviary’s FalconCam at
aviary.org
or St. John’s blog.