Remaining peregrine falcon chick at cathedral dies

The final surviving peregrine chick born in a nest on top of Worcester Cathedral has died.

Adult birds Peter and Peggy produced four eggs at the cathedral this spring, with the first hatching on Easter Sunday - but two chicks died last week and the fourth egg failed to hatch.

The remaining chick became sick and died at about 20:30 BST on Thursday, a post on Peregrine Falcons in Worcester confirmed.

A 24-hour livestream of the nest was shut down on Thursday after the bird became ill and started acting lethargically, with its parents stopping feeding it.

On Facebook on Friday, Peregrine Falcons in Worcester posted that they had initially thought, before it fell ill, that the last chick had managed to avoid an unknown illness which it said had "caused the demise of the other two".

"Cause is unknown [for the last chick] and open to speculation until we receive results back from the lab; as stated this could take some time," the post went on to say.

"As feared the chick died around 20:30 last night; it has been recovered and will shortly be sent to the lab, joining its sibling for analysis."

Both adult birds appeared to be fit and healthy and would be closely monitored, they added.

Thousands of people have been watching progress in the nest box on the livestream on YouTube, with nearly 500,000 people tuning in from across the world in 2024.

The nesting pair, also known as Mr and Mrs P, have had three successful years producing and fledging four healthy chicks from 2022 at the cathedral.

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