Melbourne’s favourite reality TV stars, the Peregrine Falcons who call a nesting box on the rooftop at 367 Collins Street home, are back for the 2023 nesting season.
Peregrine Falcons have been nesting on this building since 1991 and this is the only nesting site of the species in the entire Melbourne CBD. The nesting box has been viewable via a livestream for the past few years, and became exceptionally popular with viewers during Melbourne’s lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.
At the time of writing (5th September 2023) one egg is visible in the nesting box via the livestream with more eggs expected soon.
The birds are monitored by volunteers from the Victorian Peregrine Project and BirdLife Australia who conduct field research and also raise awareness to help conserve the species.
Peregrine Falcons are birds of prey, also known as raptors, and are the fastest creature on the planet – able to fly at speeds of more than 320 kilometres per hour. Unfortunately they have been hunted both for sport and because they’ve gotten a bad reputation, and have also had problems with their food sources such as pigeons and seagulls being poisoned, which in turn means they eat poison. This has led them to be an endangered species.
There’s a Facebook group you can join to discuss the birds and their lives, which has more than 46,000 members – 367 Collins Falcon Watchers. The livestream can be accessed here.
