First Egg of Falcon Season at WoodmenLife Has Arrived
There’s activity atop WoodmenLife Tower! Chayton has laid the first egg of the 2021 falcon season on the 28th floor ledge. This is the fourth year she and Mintaka have had eggs there, though he’s been here with other mates since 2010.
They are in the nest box on the east side of the downtown Omaha landmark. There’s a live camera on them at all times. Take a look now.
What happens next? Chayton will likely lay 2 to 4 more eggs, one about every other day. Then she and Mintaka will take turns sitting on them to keep them warm and hunting for starlings, pigeons and the other birds that are plentiful downtown.
Incubation takes just over 30 days, and then the eyasses (baby falcons) break through their shells and start a feeding frenzy. Both parents will work hard to keep their little mouths fed until the birds fledge five to six weeks after hatching.
Peregrine falcons have called the tower home since 1988, when the Peregrine Falcon Project released a pair on what was then the tallest building in downtown Omaha. WoodmenLife works with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and Raptor Recovery at Fontenelle Forest to band the birds before they go and search for their own hunting grounds. This helps conservationists track their populations and is the type of research that helped bring the birds back from being considered endangered decades ago.
Want to learn more? Visit our Falcon Watch home page. There you’ll find out the history of the WoodmenLife Tower falcon program, facts about these incredibly fast raptors, some fun activities, and more.