FAQs:

The falcon sits in her box often, fluffed up. Is she sick?

When a bird, in this case Tower Girl, sits in the box for long stretches of time, she has eggs that she sits on. While sometimes feather fluffing is a sign of illness, more often than not, she might either be keeping warm in cold weather, or in the process of laying eggs. 

The falcon pants a lot and holds her wings open. What's wrong with her?

Nothing is wrong when birds do this. Birds act this way in warm weather. When "panting," this is actually called "gular fluttering." We have a good article on this process here. 

A male falcon was around for a while. Where did he go?

Most likely he has continued migration northward. It is likely he has a territory and long-term mate in the normal breeding range.

I haven't seen Tower Girl in a while. Where does she go?

Since 2020, we also haven't see much of TG! In the years before, she would spend more time in her nest box during the spring and early summer, if she had laid a clutch of eggs. Outside of this time period, she would spend less time in her nest box. It wasn't uncommon for her to not appear for weeks at a time as there was little reason for her to be in the nest box without eggs or chicks to attend to. When she wasn't in the nest box, she was most likely out hunting, or possibly hanging out at other buildings around Austin. As the bird is not banded, we are unable to track her movements outside of what is visible on the camera.

She often stands on one leg and curls the other. Is something wrong with her foot?

Birds rest that way just like a horse will bend and rest one leg at a time.

When does the falcon lay eggs? When do they hatch?

A Peregrine Falcon in this area would lay eggs sometime in March, after the January or February mating season. The floor of the nest box is depressed slightly to avoid eggs rolling out. The standard incubation period is counting around 30 days from the third egg, then add a few additional days for "error."  

The eggs seen in the nest box have never hatched. See this article in the Austin American-Statesman for more details about why Tower Girl would lay eggs that don't hatch:
https://www.mystatesman.com/news/opinion/herman-looks-like-this-won-the-year-that-falcon-becomes-mom/F6aGFP8g6HLDz3hmbinENK/

KXAN also ran a short piece on this as well: https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/eggs-spotted-in-tower-girls-nesting-box/

It's not uncommon for wild birds to lay eggs that are not viable.

When was the nest box installed?

Construction Services installed the nesting box in February of 2014.

Has Tower Girl laid eggs in the past?

Yes, we discovered four eggs in March 2016. In 2017, she laid four. In 2018, when the camera was installed, she laid three. In 2019, she laid four. In 2020, she also laid four. In 2021 and 2022, there were no eggs in the nest box. It's unknown if she nested elsewhere in Austin or had deceased by then. We have not had any positive reports of her sighting around campus since.

The camera appears to be offline. When is it coming back?

Sometimes due to storms in the area or other technical issues, the camera will be offline. Trust that we are working to remedy the problem, but cannot give definite time frames when the camera is returning. We also encourage you to refresh your browser, as the issue might be on your computer.

Where can I learn more?

We post updates on the bird as they are known on our Facebook page. Additionally, there are wonderful resources from places like the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as well as the University of California Berkeley that has an excellent outreach program for their nesting falcons.