Leamington falcons become family of six

Four peregrine falcon chicks have hatched at the nest in Leamington town hall's tower.

Warwick District Council is working in partnership with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust to provide the video feed from the tower and this showed the arrival of the new birds.

Updates about the chicks and their parents, who have been nesting in the tower for months.

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Updates about the birds are being posted on Twitter by the @LeamPeregrines account and the live feed can be watched here.

The peregrine is a large and powerful falcon.

It has long, broad, pointed wings and a relatively short tail.

It is blue-grey above, with a blackish top of the head and an obvious black ‘moustache’ that contrasts with its white face.

Its breast is finely spotted.

It is swift and agile in flight, chasing prey.

The strongholds of the breeding birds in the UK are the uplands of the north and west and rocky seacoasts.

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Peregrines have suffered illegal killing from gamekeepers and landowners, and been a target for egg collectors, but better legal protection and control of pesticides, which indirectly poisoned birds, have helped the population to recover considerably from a low in the 1960s.

Some birds, particularly females and juveniles, move away from the uplands in autumn.