‘Exciting but stressful’: Montreal peregrine falcon chicks take first flights

This week, three falcon chicks named Hugo, Polo and Estebane started to spread their wings around the nest site on the 23rd floor of the Université de Montréal tower.

The world is full of dangers when you’re a falcon chick less than six weeks old and learning to fly — even if you’re a member of the fastest species on Earth.

This week, three falcon chicks named Hugo, Polo and Estebane started to spread their wings around the nest site on the 23rd floor of the Université de Montréal tower, with hundreds of online viewers watching their every move.

It’s a moment that’s “exciting, but stressful,” says Ève Belisle, who has been watching the Université de Montréal falcons since 2007 and runs Facebook and YouTube pages dedicated to them.

“We all want to see them fly,” she said in a phone interview. “But it’s stressful because there’s always the risk of injury.”

Polo was the first falcon to take flight, on Sunday, in an attempt that began with awkward flapping but ended in a safe glide to a rooftop lower down. Hugo was even less elegant, slipping from the nest site on the tower and half-falling, half-flying to a lower perch.

Because females are bigger than males and take longer to learn to fly, Estebane will likely spend a couple more days exercising her wings before taking off.

While the chicks landed safely, their species faces tough odds of making it to adulthood, according to David Bird, an emeritus professor of wildlife biology at McGill University. Bird says about 50 per cent of falcon chicks don’t survive to their first birthday. Other estimates put that number at two-thirds.

In an interview, he said the periods where the falcons fledge — or learn to fly — are particularly dangerous, especially for city birds. An inexperienced juvenile can fly into a window, get caught in a wind gust, or flutter to the ground, where it’s at risk from cars or dogs.