The fourth in the latest batch of peregrine falcon chicks hatched Wednesday atop UC Berkeley’s famous Campanile bell tower on the same day the university held a Hatch Day event to celebrate the arrival of the new birds.
A female falcon named Annie has lived in a nest on top of the tower since 2016 and her eighth breeding season — Annie’s first with a new male named Archie — was the most successful, with all four of her eggs hatching for the first time. Three chicks came out of their shells Monday before the fourth arrived Wednesday.
A third-annual version of an event held by UC Berkeley to celebrate the falcon hatchings took place Wednesday outside of the Berkeley Art Museum and Film Archive, which showed a live-stream of the falcons’ nest on its large outdoor screen.
Cal Falcons, a lively group of bird nerds consisting of scientists and other volunteers who monitor the falcons and share footage and information about them on social media, held an information booth at the Hatch Day event as well as an online Q&A Wednesday evening.
The discussion touched on topics like the falcons’ feeding habits and the status of previous chicks of Annie’s that have flown the proverbial falcon coop, including one named Lawrencium that has since raised several chicks on Alcatraz Island.
Sean Peterson, an ecologist with Cal Falcons, said in the Q&A that a naming contest for the four new chicks will likely take place mid-May when they will also be fitted with identification bands to help track them.
More information about the falcons, as well as the live-stream footage of the nest atop the Campanile, can be found on the Cal Falcons website.