Falcon chicks in nests at Alcatraz, UC Berkeley part of same family tree

Peregrine falcon chicks hatched recently on both Alcatraz Island and at a famous University of California at Berkeley landmark, and while they’re in different nests, they’re part of the same family tree.

The falcons have lately been a source of interest locally. On Tuesday, hundreds of people at UC Berkeley attended a party to watch the hatching of falcon chicks in a nest at the Campanile bell tower, the third-largest bell-and-clock tower in the world.

Live-streamed video on an outdoor screen at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) showed the latest eggs to hatch at a nest where a female falcon named Annie has lived since 2017.

The webcams set up at the tower to watch the falcons have been popular enough that the school has held public naming contests when Annie has new chicks, including a female falcon born in 2018 that got the winning name Lawrencium in honor of an element discovered at the UC Berkeley campus.

Lawrencium eventually flew out on her own and has made her home on Alcatraz Island,
where the National Park Service has monitored her having a nest with a mate since at least 2020. They are the first peregrine falcons to nest there in recorded history.

As Annie has seen her newest chicks hatch, Lawrencium this month also welcomed four new chicks to the world, with the fourth hatching this week, a park service biologist said.

Lidia D’Amico, the Alcatraz biologist for the park service’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area, said the falcons’ nest is along the western cliffs of Alcatraz in a location that is not visible from land but has a camera set up near the nest to monitor the birds’ activity.

The video feed is not yet open to the public like the one at UC Berkeley, but D’Amico said the park service may make it available for anyone to watch starting next year.

“It’s kind of new territory for Alcatraz … to be exploring this remote sensing opportunity for monitoring a nest, so we’re excited to see how it goes,” she said.

Lawrencium, or “Larry” as D’Amico referred to her, was identified thanks to the band put on her leg by the Cal Falcons group of scientists and volunteers who monitor the nest at UC Berkeley, but her male mate has no such band.