The peregrine falcon chicks that hatched in Winnipeg last month were banded live Wednesday on the CBC Manitoba Falcon Cam.

The four chicks belonging to Princess and Ivy, the peregrine falcon pair nesting in a box atop the downtown Radisson Hotel, were hatched May 12.

During the banding process, it was learned there are three male chicks and one female among the four.

One of the falcon chicks receives its leg band on Wednesday. (CBC)

Temporarily removing the chicks from the nestbox and their parents is difficult but essential to band them to track the endangered species, said Tracy Maconachie, a conservation biologist who has co-ordinated Manitoba's Peregrine Falcon Recovery Project for 19 years.

Notes from the leg banding on Wednesday indicate there are three males chicks and one female. (CBC)

“This is important because understanding where peregrines travel and settle to nest is information we need to in order to support and protect them," she said.

"With this information, the peregrine falcon will one day no longer be a species at risk in Manitoba and in Canada."

The chicks were returned to their nestbox immediately after the banding and huddled together, as if trying to understand what just happened.

Princess and Ivy will readily accept them back because birds, unlike other wild animals, do not detect human strangers on their young, Maconachie said.

Hurricane and Brooklyn's first three hatches squawk for food in Brandon on Tuesday. (Submitted by Karihari)

Various pairs of the peregrine falcons have been nesting on the hotel since 1989 and the webcam has been there since 2006, enabling people around the world to observe the tender and sometimes tragic first few weeks of the new families.

Another live cam is aimed on a nest belonging to Hurricane and Brooklyn, a peregrine pair that welcomed their brood this week atop of the McKenzie Seeds building in Brandon, Man.