Downtown Salt Lake City peregrine falcons welcome third chick

A pair of peregrine falcons nesting on the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in downtown Salt Lake City welcomed a third chick Monday morning, leaving just one more egg to hatch.

Anyone watching one of two webcams in the nest box could witness the event by clicking to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources' Watchable Wildlife website.

Having hatched, as of Monday, three of the four eggs in the nest, the falcon parents were doing much better than a year ago. The falcons of 2013 laid four eggs but only one hatched.

That sole hatchling, a male named "Solo" by wildlife officers, crashed into a building while learning to fly July 3 and eventually died from its injuries.

The female from last year returned to the nest this spring, but with a new male mate. This male seems to have taken more interest in sharing egg incubation duties with the mother bird, DWR officials say.

The male from 2013 was found with a dislocated shoulder and had to be euthanized.

remims@sltrib.com

Twitter: @remims