Carla at the green perch, 4:48pm, 5 Sept 2026

6 September 2026

After a string of violent weather, yesterday was delightful. Not too hot. Not too windy. Not pouring. The Pitt peregrines took advantage of good weather to preen and strengthen their pair bond at the nest, seen on the snapshot camera.

Ecco is a regular at the nest in the off season. He stopped by before dawn today.

Ecco stops by the nest before dawn, 6 Sept 2026, 6:07am (photo from the National Aviary snapshot camera at Univ of Pittsburgh)

Carla rarely visits so it was a treat that she spent an hour preening on camera. She and Ecco are both near the end of their annual molt but Carla is ahead of Ecco because female peregrines molt their primary wing feathers during incubation in March and April. She looks sleek when she stretches.

Eventually Ecco arrived and they stayed together for almost half an hour, strengthening their pair bond.

Carla & Ecco, 5 Sept 2026 (photo from the National Aviary snapshot camera at Univ of Pittsburgh)

Fun Fact about Molting: Carla is nearly finished but Ecco’s tail showed feather growth on Thursday. You can see four feathers in progress in the snapshot below, indicated by the white feather tips partway up his tail.

Ecco’s tail feather molt is shown by white tips of the new feathers coming in, 4 Sep 2026 (photo from the National Aviary snapshot camera at Univ of Pittsburgh)

Flight feathers molt in pairs — the same feather on each side of the body — so that flying is not compromised during the molt.