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Kansas City, Mo. – A nesting peregrine falcon pair can now be watched online at a site in the Kansas City area. The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) partners with businesses to place peregrine nesting boxes on the ledges of tall buildings or onto power plant smokestacks. This spring, two nest cameras are broadcasting and one nest is active. A pair is tending a nest online at Evergy’s Iatan Power Plant north of Weston in Platte County. Another camera is live on a nest box at the American Century Investments tower at the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, though a pair has not appeared at that nest this spring.
Digital cameras capture images of the female falcons laying eggs and incubating them. After the chicks hatch, viewers can watch the parents bring food and feed them. The young falcons grow and change behaviors weekly until they fledge in early summer.
Cliff ledges are the traditional nesting spots for falcons. In re-introduction efforts, nest boxes have been placed on tall structures to mimic cliffs. MDC biologists monitor the nests and in late spring they affix leg bands to young falcons to help track population trends and movements. A decades-long program of providing nest boxes has helped falcons recover in Missouri from endangered status to a species of conservation concern.
The falcon nesting and banding program is part of a decades-long effort by midwestern states to recover falcon populations. Falcons that hatch and fledge in urban areas migrate throughout the Midwest, forming new pairs and producing the next generations of falcons. Falcons banded in Missouri are often reported in other states to the north and south, and falcons banded in other states sometimes establish nests in Missouri. MDC and partners will be watching for nesting success at nest boxes in several locations in Kansas City and outstate Missouri this spring.
To watch the falcon nest at Evergy’s Iatan Power Plant, which has sound as well as video, visit https://short.mdc.mo.gov/4QR. So far, no falcons have appeared at American Century Investments, but to keep checking, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIwCBks7HDg.
For more information about peregrine falcons in Missouri, visit https://short.mdc.mo.gov/Zrd.
