Peregrine Falcon Found Dead Days After First Egg Laid

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Just days after this year's first egg was laid in the peregrine falcon nest on the Cathedral of Learning, one of the falcons was found dead.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the male falcon was found Wednesday in a residential yard in Friendship, about a mile-and-a-half from the nest. They say the state Game Commission will perform a necropsy, or an animal autopsy, to try to determine the cause of death.

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Hope, the female peregrine falcon, just laid her first egg in the nest on top of the Cathedral of Learning Sunday morning. Since then, two more eggs have been laid. The male falcon's previous mate, Dorothy, disappeared last year, and the National Aviary says she likely died of old age at age 17.

Bob Mulvihill, an expert at the National Aviary, told the Post-Gazette that they were unsure how Hope would respond to the loss of her mate.

"She could abandon the eggs, find a new mate and renest, or stay on the nest and try to make it as a single mother," he said.