Peregrine falcon lays two eggs in nest atop University of Montreal tower: watch livestream

A peregrine falcon keeps a watchful eye on her two eggs, both laid the week of April 16, 2023 in a University of Montreal nest perched atop a building on campus.

It's not an official birth announcement quite yet but birders at Universite de Montreal are delighted to announce that their resident peregrine falcon has laid not one but now two brown, speckled eggs in a nest box perched on the 23rd floor of a tower on campus.

The mama falcon, Eve, named after her University of Montreal protector Eve Belisle, produced her first future offspring on April 16 and then a second egg was spotted two days later.

"It's super exciting," Belisle said in an interview. The Ecole Polytechnique researcher, a bird lover from a young age she said, was the first one to spot the falcons soaring high above the school grounds in 2007.

"I started to take photos of the birds flying around the big tower, it looked like birds of prey," she said. Getting tired of craning her neck to admire them, she pushed for a nest to be built on the tower and then a webcam "for my own sanity!" Also, so everyone else could enjoy them as much as she does.

Eve (the falcon), is expected to produce two more eggs. Then, Belisle explained they count 33 days from the day the third egg appears to the day they expect the eggs to hatch.

"So three babies will hatch close together and then usually there's a little one that actually hatches a few days later. He's a little smaller, but usually, he survives," Belisle said.

A camera is trained on the nest box and livestreams the falcons' every move when they're hanging out at home.

Two peregrine falcons, Spirit and Roger, who first arrived in 2007 pop by on occasion. According to a website that contains links to the rooftop webcams the pair "successfully raised two young for the first time in 2009." The two adults who make the wooden lean-to their home now are Eve and a male known as 'M.'

At 9:56 a.m. on Wednesday, Eve could be seen stirring and looking side to side before clearly deciding she needed to take a break from egg-sitting for a little self-care.

The falcon stood up for a stretch and made her way to the edge of the nest box to take in the sights, leaving livestream viewers with a tantalizing view of one egg, as she preened her feathers for exactly three minutes before taking up her role as a live incubator once more.

But if bird lovers keep watching they will likely be rewarded eventually with a view of all four of the two-toned coffee-coloured eggs and the fuzzy chicks when they arrive.