Meet Melbourne's newest Peregrine Falcon family

Welcoming the next generation of Peregrine Falcons to Collins Street

Your favourite reality TV show is back for another season.

In August, a pair of Peregrine Falcons returned to nest atop a skyscraper on Melbourne’s Collins Street – kickstarting the hugely popular 24-hour live stream of their nest.

All three of the eggs have now hatched, much to the delight of their many adoring fans.

Life on the ledge: the final Collins Street falcon chick hatches!

There are high hopes for this season, after a different Peregrine pair were forced to abandon their non-viable eggs at the site almost a year ago.

This year, an additional camera means we’ll be able to watch from all angles as the falcons grow from tiny balls of fluff into fearsome rulers of Melbourne’s skies. ⁠

The 367 Collins St Falcons Live Stream was started seven years ago by the Victorian Peregrine Project (VPP), an initiative of BirdLife Australia’s Raptor Group. The falcons have been using the nest boxes on the building’s ledge since the early 1990s.⁠ 

We wish the next generation of Collins Street falcons all the best!

Watch: tune into the 24-hour livestream

  Facts about Peregrine Falcons

• Peregrine Falcons are the fastest animals on earth and are formidable hunters, capable of diving at breakneck speeds of over 300km/h before striking down their unsuspecting prey. They feed mostly on small to medium-sized birds, especially pigeons.
• Like most falcon species, Peregrines do not build their own nests. Instead, they lay their eggs in recesses of cliff ledges, tree hollows or in the abandoned nests of other bird species. Like the Collins Street pair, Peregrine Falcons are also adapting to life in the city and will nest on the ledges of tall buildings and bridges. Once bonded to a nest site, they tend to return to it for life.
• Pairs mate for life, and will lay a clutch of up to four eggs each season. In the early nestling stages, the male will bring all the food to the nest for the female to feed to their young. Both adults will hunt for their chicks until they’re old enough to fledge, or fly for the first time (typically around 40 days after hatching).
• Once the young falcons have fledged, they will remain with their parents for a few months, who will teach them how to hunt and survive on their own. However, as Peregrine Falcons are fiercely territorial, parents will drive their fledglings away from home to establish their own territories once they make their first kill.