Breeding Bird Atlas 1 Species Accounts
Peregrine Falcon
Falco peregrinus
State Status

In an effort to restore the beleaguered Peregrine Falcon population, in 1973 the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology initiated a captive breeding program that would eventually make it possible to return captive-raised Peregrine Falcons to the wild. Early attempts with this technique at Mount Tom in Massachusetts during the late 1970s were unsuccessful. Starting in 1984, a different approach was attempted when six young Peregrine Falcons were placed in a hacking tower atop Boston’s McCormack Building. Although the success of some of these initial hacking attempts was mixed, 1989, after six years of hacking efforts, wild Peregrine Falcons started nesting once again in Boston and Springfield. By 1999, there was a successful nesting pair in Boston, Suffolk County; Springfield, Hampden County; and Fall River, Bristol County.