One of four chicks being raised by a pair of peregrine falcons high above Winnipeg fell to its death before the horrified eyes of hundreds of online viewers Tuesday afternoon.

Dozens of people from around the world who had been watching the progress of the chicks via a webcam — dubbed the Falcon Cam — called CBC Manitoba and the Peregrine Falcon Recovery Project to report the chick's fall from the nestbox, located above the hotel sign 30 storeys above ground on the Radisson Hotel's west side.

An adult peregrine watches over four eggs in its nestbox, perched 30 storeys above downtown Winnipeg. All four eggs hatched in late May, but one of the chicks fell from the nest in mid-June.
(CBC)

Tracy Maconachie, a conservation biologist who has co-ordinated the recovery project for 15 years, suspects a serious underlying illness led to the chick's fall.

In the wild, five to seven out of 10 peregrine falcon chicks die in the first year, Maconachie said, but this is the first time she's lost a chick so late in the nesting period.

"We've never had a chick drop from the nest at the Radisson," since the program started in 1989, she told CBC News Wednesday.

No sign of illness, fight injury

Some concerned viewers reported that the chick appeared hurt or sick before tumbling over the edge of its nestbox and speculated injuries were inflicted by one of its parents or siblings.

But Maconachie said when she recovered the chick's body from the roof of a neighbouring building, the chick was normal size, weight and development for its age and showed no external signs of injury or illness, Maconachie said.

The chick's body will be sent for a necropsy.

The three remaining chicks in the nestbox were also examined, and all appear to be fine, including the youngest chick, which is smaller than its siblings.

"They all look fine, fat and healthy," Maconachie said, adding that she believes the fallen chick was the third to hatch, emerging from its egg on May 29.

Chicks will be banded Friday

The gender of the chicks won't be known until they are banded on Friday.

Since 1989, various pairs of the peregrine falcons have been nesting on the downtown hotel. This is the fourth set of chicks for this pair and the first time they've hatched four.

Peregrine falcons were close to extinction in the U.S. by the 1960s and in Canada east of the Rockies in the 1970s. The pair that nested at the hotel in 1989 was the first confirmed peregrine nesting in Manitoba since the mid-1900s.

In Canada and the United States, it is illegal to kill peregrines or disrupt their nests.