The nests of Peregrine Falcons are distressingly empty in North America, with scientists and habitat preservation officials raising the alarm about the fastest bird in the air. A Peregrine expert who monitors their nesting sites along the Yukon River in Alaska reported that 20 of 60 nesting sites were empty, and a dozen more were missing a parent in 2023. This prompted more monitoring, with similar findings across the continent: 22 of the 44 nesting peregrines in New Jersey went missing last season, a dozen out of the 70 in Virginia were missing and Quebec’s Peregrine population saw reproductive success fall from 50 percent to 30 percent in 2022. The fear — for which there is evidence, but insufficiently conclusive evidence at this time — is that this trend is related to the avian influenza going around. Given that the falcons will hunt other birds, they may be more vulnerable than other species to the virus.
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