Final cathedral peregrine chick healthy and well

The final surviving peregrine chick born in a nest on top of Worcester Cathedral is said to be fit and healthy.

Parents, named Peter and Peggy, had produced four eggs, with the first hatching on Easter Sunday. However, two chicks died last week, after the fourth had failed to hatch.

The first chick that died was taken away by one of the adult birds, which are now putting all their efforts into making sure the one left survives.

"What tends to happen is, as the chicks get lower in number, one chick will get fed really well," Chris Dobbs, a wildlife expert at the cathedral, said,

"He or she gets all the food, rather than it shared between three or four, which we've had been the case in past years.

"Once you get one on its own, as long as it stays healthy, that's going to grow like mad now and get rather large."

Progress in the nest has been livestreamed on YouTube, in a repeat of last year when nearly 500,000 people tuned in from across the world.

Mr Dobbs said the slightly smaller chick of the remaining two got "shoved into the side of the ledge outside the box" on Friday.

"It was obviously out there on its own, the mother wasn't feeding it and it started looking particularly ill," he explained.

"Research does show that birds sort of know when other birds are ill, either as adults or as chicks, particularly, and they react to them slightly differently.

"We're just a bit privileged being able to see what's happening on the camera this year - we're seeing a bit of reality and the law of the jungle, I'm afraid."

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