Xcel Energy Falcon Cam
Falcon Cam
Active: March - May
Three Locations in Minnesota
Our Falcon Cam features three different nest sites at Xcel Energy power plants in Minnesota. Xcel Energy’s involvement with bird cams began with the Falcon Cam in 1997, when the first camera came online to help raise awareness for our partnership with the Raptor Resource Project (RRP) and peregrine falcon conservation efforts. It was installed at our Allen S. King Plant, in Oak Park Heights, Minnesota. We also have a bird cam at our Black Dog Plant, in Burnsville and a new camera at Sherburne County (Sherco) Plant, in Becker. The nest boxes at our High Bridge and Riverside Plants have been relocated due to plant repowering projects. We hope to have falcons move into those boxes soon. Streaming videos are provided from the Allen S. King Plant and Sherco nest boxes. The other Falcon Cam location provides updated photos every two minutes. All the cameras archive photos for the day in the Daily Pix section. Local time, Central Standard Time (CST), is used for these images.
Daily Pix
Latest News
No activity at the nest boxes.
About Falcon Cam
Peregrine falcons find the boxes installed on power plant stacks attractive as nesting sites because they offer some of the same features as the high cliffs, which they naturally prefer. Installed 300 to 600 feet above the ground, the boxes provide a perch where peregrines have an excellent view of the skies around them and can quickly spot and “skydive” for prey. The boxes were first installed at our Minnesota power plants beginning in 1989 to help return peregrines to the Mississippi River Valley
Interested in corresponding with other Bird Cam viewers? Join the BirdCam Forum available through the Raptor Resource Project.
Falcon Facts
- Both parents help raise their young.
- Have been known to live up to 15 years.
- Eat prey largely made up of other birds which they catch in flight.
- Use of the pesticide DDT nearly wiped out the entire population in the 1960s.
- Peregrine Falcons are the fastest raptors on earth, with diving speeds over 200 miles per hour and level flight speeds of over 60 miles per hour.
