Richmond Virginia Peregrine Falcon Live Cam

On banding day, currently scheduled for May 22, DWR biologists will deploy the pen that has been used in previous years to prevent early fledge events. The camera will be turned off for up to a few hours while staff are banding the chicks and installing the pen. After this work has been completed, the chicks will be returned to the nest box and the camera will be turned back on. Be on the lookout for a follow-up post https://dwr.virginia.gov/falcon-cam; which will contain updates from banding day! The pen is a precautionary measure that we take to prevent the chicks from fledging prematurely. As the chicks develop and become mobile, they begin to venture outside of the nest box; a chick spending time on the ledge wall is vulnerable to losing its footing which may cause it to become airborne before it is able to fully fly. This has occurred in the past at this nest site. Although chicks may be able to glide safely to the ground without injury, their inability to fly leaves them highly vulnerable to vehicular traffic on busy city streets. The pen is deployed at an age when the chicks are no longer being brooded by the parents, but still depend on them for food. The parents bring prey items to the chicks and feed them bits of food through the pen. Eventually, as the chicks develop, the adults are able to pass larger pieces of prey to the chicks and they tear this up themselves. It may take the parents a few hours to adjust to feeding the chicks through the pen when it is first deployed. The pen set up includes a wooden board strapped to its top in order to provide shade for the chicks while they explore the area outside of the nest box. The pen is filled with the same type of gravel substrate that is inside the nest box. The pen door will be opened when the chicks are of the age where they are able to take their first flight.

About the Richmond Virginia Peregrine Falcon Live Cam

The Richmond Falcon Cam gives viewers a close look at an active peregrine falcon nest site high above downtown Richmond. This single camera stream features night and day video, live audio, TimeLapse functionality, and manual 4K PTZ views that follow the breeding and nesting seasons of peregrine falcons from courtship through egg laying and chick fledging. The camera sits about 8 feet from a wooden nest box, so you can see directly into the nest or the surrounding area where the adults regularly perch when not tending to eggs or chicks. In addition to maintaining the camera, the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (VDWR) also provides a blog throughout the season which chronicles the activities of the birds and provides updates as to what viewers should expect to see next. 

The VDWR is charged with the conservation of Virginia’s wildlife and plays a leading role in peregrine falcon recovery and monitoring across the Commonwealth. Through nest monitoring, banding, education, and public wildlife viewing, Virginia DWR has helped turn this Richmond nest into an important conservation story and a valuable learning resource for biologists, classrooms, and wildlife watchers.

History

Peregrine falcons once nested exclusively on cliff ledges in Virginia, but recovery work helped reestablish birds across the state following their extinction in the Eastern US during the 1960s. Part of this reintroduction effort involved temporarily housing and releasing birds via a process called hacking, which sometimes took place on artificial structures such as bridges and skyscrapers. Virginia DWR notes that birds were first hacked onto a downtown Richmond rooftop in 2000 through a cooperative conservation effort. A breeding pair became established in 2002, nested on the old BB&T building from 2003 through 2005, and shifted to Riverfront Plaza in 2006, where the current nest box has been the main focus of activity.

The Richmond Falcon Cam has documented numerous birds on camera throughout the years as well as courtship, territorial disputes, egg laying, hatching, and chick growth. The current adult pair on camera, female 95/AK and male 59/BM, has used this site since 2021. Virginia DWR also notes that peregrine falcons remain state threatened in Virginia, which makes close monitoring at active nests like this one especially meaningful.

Activities

This camera is live during the breeding season, during which time viewers can expect to:

• Watch courtship displays, pair bonding, and prey deliveries
• Follow egg laying, incubation, and the first signs of hatching
• See feeding sessions, chick growth, wing stretching, and fledging milestones
• Use TimeLapse to catch changes in nest activity across the day
• Listen for falcon calls, city sounds, and movement around the ledge with live audio

Interesting Facts

Unlike some other camera streams, the VDWR deploys a modified ‘pen’ at this site after the chicks are banded. The penning of the chicks is a technique has been used successfully since the early 2000s, shortly after Peregrine Falcons began nesting in Richmond. Penning came about as a response to falcon chicks ending up grounded on the downtown expressway, when they jumped prematurely from their nest box during those early years.  Since then, chicks have been penned consistently each year after they are banded.  On two occasions (2009 and 2020) in which a pen was not deployed at Riverfront Plaza, chicks have ended up grounded at street level, having come off the building before being fully capable of flight. After the chicks are penned, the adults continue to care for the chicks and will deliver prey items to them through the bars of the pen. Once the chicks are no longer at risk of pre-mature fledging events, the pen is opened at which point they can leave the nest box at will.

The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources leads peregrine falcon recovery and management in Virginia and works with partners to monitor nests, band chicks, and track where birds go after they leave the box. Banding gives biologists important information about age, survival, family lines, and breeding history. At the Richmond site, that work has helped tell the story of individual birds across multiple seasons and has made this cam a strong educational resource.

Peregrine falcons are famous for speed and precision in flight, and urban ledges can function much like natural cliff nests. Richmond’s high rise setting gives these birds elevation, wide views, and access to prey while also giving viewers an unusually close look at life inside an active nest box. This camera is more than a live view. It is a window into conservation in action and into the long term efforts of Virginia DWR to study, protect, and share one of the Commonwealth’s most remarkable birds of prey.

When To Watch

The camera goes live every spring in early March. This is one of the best times to watch for courtship, nest scrape maintenance, and egg laying. Following egg laying, viewers can expect to see incubation, hatching, feeding, banding updates, and the penning of the chicks in the days leading up to first flight. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Check out a detailed FAQ about the Richmond Falcon Cam that is maintained by the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, here!

Last Updated: March 20, 2026