LATEST UPDATES….

April 30, 2026  Three of the eggs have hatched. The fourth and final egg should hatch any day now. 

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March 23, 2026  The peregrines have done it again! the third egg was seen Saturday, 3/21. This marks the beginning of incubation. Mom may still lay a fourth egg before laying is complete.

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March 18, 2026  The second egg has been laid in the peregrine nest!

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March 18, 2026  The first egg has been laid in the peregrine nest! The female will lay up to four eggs, sometimes five, and she will start incubating after the third egg. She waits to incubate so that eggs that are laid several days apart will hatch more or less at the same time. Once incubation begins, the male and female will take turns at the nest every hour or so.

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March 17, 2026  The peregrine pair is spending more and more time near and in the nest box, so eggs should appear soon. 

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February 11, 2026   The AGC peregrine pair is back for their fifth nesting year. They have been at or near their nest almost constantly since January. Now they take turns lying in the nest, a gravel-filled wooden box. They use their bodies to hollow out the gravel where the eggs will be laid.

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BACKGROUND  These are Peregrine falcons, which began nesting again in Seattle in 1994, slowly returning from near extinction due to the effects of DDT. The first-known Seattle nest was at 1201 Third Avenue (formerly the WAMU building).

Peregrines have nested in the city since then (4-6 nests a year), but it wasn’t until 28 years later that a pair showed interest in nesting on a second Seattle building: the AGC of Washington building in the South Lake Union area.

In 2022, AGC, in partnership with Urban Raptor Conservancy, hosted the nest box you see here, behind a balcony on the building’s tenth floor, and the Peregrines did the rest. Tenth-floor tenants GMMB were marvelous stewards of the nest box outside their window, providing the Peregrines with privacy during nesting. In return, GMMB had the unique opportunity to witness the entire Peregrine breeding season — from egg-laying to fledgling.

Peregrines like to nest over water, and urban youngsters often drown before they can fly. In the summer of 2022, Urban Raptor Conservancy’s “Peregrine Navy” kept a kayak vigil for over two weeks to watch for fledglings in the water at busy South Lake Union. In July, three strong youngsters were the first Peregrines to fledge from the AGC building.