Peregrine Falcons in Pawtucket, Rhode Island

Adult and Fledgling

I spent Sunday morning photographing a family of Peregrine Falcons in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. I was invited by my friend, Kathleen, whose office is on the 4th floor of her building and has a unobstructed in the view of the tower at Pawtucket City,.  where their nest is located..  The nest box was installed when work on the I-95 bridge was started.  The only problem is that the tower may have to be torn down because of constant leaking.

Pawtucket City Hall

Kathleen's office is located on the 4th floor, which is the location where we photographed the birds from.  A great location, comfortable, with chairs, and no mosquitoes.  The line of sight was clear from the windows to the tower and we were around 300 to 350 feet away from the action.

For equipment I utilized by 500 mm f/4 lens with a 2X converter and for my main camera my full frame Nikon D 800.  I did utilize my Nikon D 7000 for a few comparison pictures.  Although the D 7000 with its crop factor of I.5 added to the magnification of the picture, the difference in sharpness between the 16 pixel D 7000 and the 36 pixel D 800 is remarkable.

Nikon D800

Nikon D7000

When we started photographing the Peregrine Falcons, all that was present by the nesting box and on the ledge below where the fledglings.  They would hop around, and flapped their wings, eat and rest.

The adults did make an appearance.  The female Peregrine Falcons went and rested on a projection just below a large carved eagle on the tower. 









The male bird flew off and disappeared for almost 2 hours.  Later, the female took off and disappeared, probably hunting for food. 

Female peering nto the "Looking Glass"

Finally just as we were packing up and going to leave, the admirals returned and brought food and there was a lot of activity.  It took me all of 30 seconds to unpack my dear and set it up to take pictures of the new activity.


Male Peregrine eating the gave rest of the prey to a fledgling.


The size difference between the male and female Peregrine falcon was large, and the male had more of an all white breast compared to the female.  This could be secondary to the recovery efforts that were instituted to recover the Peregrine Falcons from in endangered species by utilizing captive birds and non-native subspecies into the breeding stock.

Peregrine Falcons have taken to the urban landscape, and nesting on cathedrals, when the ledges of skyscrapers and towers along with suspension bridges.  So when you are out and about, keep your eyes peeled the sky to look for this extremely fast flying falcon.