Falcons for Everyone is back and bigger than ever! This spring, you can live stream the daily life of 3 falcon families in Brussels, from the hatching of the eggs to the first flight of the young falcons.

At the beginning of the 1970s, Peregrine falcons had completely disappeared in Belgium and even almost everywhere else in Europe. The culprits: pouching, hunting, habitat disruption, but most of all the use of pesticides like DDT. But by banning the most dangerous pesticides, through guidelines and protection programs, the Peregrine falcons have made a comeback.  There are 12 falcon couples in Brussels, and that is extraordinary. Our program Falcons for Everyone has developed into a true observation network.

Three Live Streams

From 5 April until 25 May you can follow 3 Peregrine falcon families on via www.falconsforeveryone.be. One in the St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral, one on top of the town hall of Saint-Pierre-Woluwe and – new this year – one in the St. Job Church in Uccle. You can watch the nest 24/7: the hatching couple, the chicks coming out of their egg, how they are fed and ultimately, after 6 weeks, when they fly out. At the beginning of March, all of the females laid 4 eggs and the first little falcons are expected in the first week of April.

On the blog, you get information from our ornithologist Didier Vangeluwe, who founded the project in 2004 and leads it with much enthusiasm. You’d rather go check out the falcons in real life? Then visit the observation post on the square in front of the Brussels Cathedral. There, you can look at the falcons through a powerful telescope and take high resolution pictures by attaching your smartphone to the telescope. Last year, around 15.000 people came to visit. The website received about 3,2 million hits from 136 countries in 2016. If only the falcons knew!