Courtship

The male Peregrine Falcon uses his flying skills to court his chosen female. Zooming around her and performing high-speed aerobatics, he repeatedly sounds his mating call: "chup-tuk, chup-tuk." He often kills a bird and presents it to the female. The male flies above the female with the prey in his talons, drops it, and she flips over to catch it! Food donations do more than encourage the female to mate. She also gets extra nutrition without exerting extra energy. She'll need that nutrition because if the mating is successful, her hunting ability will be limited.

Nesting

The male hunts for a nest, selecting several sites and the female makes the final choice. The nest is called a "scrape" because in the wild it usually is nothing more than a slight depression scraped in the dirt on a high crag. Peregrines that select urban sites often use nesting boxes provided by falcon fans. The floor of the box is lined with gravel to give the birds a kind of scrape. Peregrines usually mate for life. In a typical nest, the female is the dominant partner. She often grabs food that the male has brought back from the hunt. The male acts cautiously around his bigger and more aggressive female. If a mate dies, however, the survivor will take a new partner. The mates will use their nest as the hub of a territory that they will fiercely defend. Typically, the pair returns year after year to the same nest, but sometimes they will take turns using two or three sites in the same area.