The lovebirds (or really, love falcons) are back.
A pair of peregrine falcons, dubbed Adele and Frank, have returned to their 14th floor perch at 55 Water St., a spot where they've nested and hatched babies for several years — with every moment captured on a livestream "Falcon Cam."
Mom Adele laid her first egg on March 29, according the cam's accompanying blog, and it's possible there may be more to come. Previous seasons have seen as many as three fluffy babies hatched.
Peregrines have nested at the 54-story office building since the 1990s, and the webcam, installed more than 10 years ago, has developed a following of viewers from around the world.
Thanks to the cam, avid virtual birdwatchers can glimpse every moment of the falcons’ nesting, from laying eggs, to hatching their younglings, and seeing the babies take their first flight. Adele will spend the next couple of weeks protecting her egg before it hatches.
Though the hatchlings may be cute, don't be fooled: peregrine falcons are known as one of nature’s most remarkable flying hunters.
The falcons dive onto their prey in mid-air at speeds as high as 200 miles per hour. They use their talons to knock their victims out, and if that doesn’t work, they use a “tooth-like projection” in their jaw to dislocate the spine of their prey, according to the 55 Water St. website.
The Department of Environmental Protection comes to 55 Water St. each year to place bands on the newly born falcons, to keep track of the once-endangered species.
While the building is not the only regular nesting site for birds, it's one of the rare bird cam's in the city.
A popular “HawkCam” at Washington Square Park, that was shut down in 2014, relaunched last month.
Correction: An earlier version of the article stated that the HawkCam was shut down, but did not mention that it was recently relaunched.
