Dubuque Courthouse Falcon Nest

A Historic Courthouse Perch

The Dubuque County Courthouse, a golden-domed landmark in downtown Dubuque, Iowa, hosts a peregrine falcon nest box bolted to a fifth-floor ledge. The pan-tilt-zoom camera lets viewers follow the birds across the box and the surrounding brick facade.

A Returning Breeding Pair

Since 2017 a banded peregrine falcon pair has claimed this ledge each nesting season, the female marked with a blue band and the male with a red band. Courtship, egg-laying, and the raising of a new brood of eyases unfold on camera year after year.

Conservation in the Open

Once endangered by pesticide use, peregrine falcons have rebounded through decades of reintroduction efforts, and this county-run stream lets the public follow one urban pair's nesting cycle in real time from a downtown rooftop.