Peregrines thriving in Yosemite

Yosemite’s peregrine falcons posted a record 2025 breeding season, with 15 nests, 23 fledglings and seven newly documented nest sites on the park’s cliffs. (discoverwildlife.com) The new sites expanded the birds’ footprint across Yosemite’s granite walls, including a new territory at Parkline Slab and new cliff occupancy at BHOS Dome in Tenaya Canyon, according to field updates circulated after the season closed on July 15, 2025. (yosemiteaudubon.org) Park biologists protect those nests with temporary climbing closures that begin March 1 and are adjusted through spring as staff confirm where pairs are actually breeding. The closures usually end once chicks have fledged and dispersed. (nps.gov 1) (nps.gov 2) A peregrine eyrie is a nest scraped onto a high ledge, and Yosemite’s sheer granite faces give the birds exactly that. Park officials say peregrines and golden eagles in Yosemite usually nest on cliffs or domes below 10,000 feet and near water. (nps.gov) The park’s current surge follows a longer recovery effort that Yosemite formally organized in 2009 through its Raptor Protection Program. Since that program began, park staff say they have documented 51 new peregrine nests in Yosemite. (nps.gov) The rebound is stark against the species’ earlier collapse. National Park Service material says peregrines disappeared from Yosemite for decades, and the park’s historical records show the birds were absent from 1949 to 1975 before breeding was rediscovered on El Capitan in 1978. (nps.gov 1) (nps.gov 2) The broader North American picture has improved too. A 2023 United States Fish and Wildlife Service status assessment said peregrine populations had continued to grow since 2007, years after the species recovered enough to allow limited falconry take again under tight controls. (fws.gov) Yosemite’s approach leans on constant monitoring instead of shutting huge areas for an entire season. Park officials say that adaptive system lets them shrink or lift closures as conditions change while still protecting nests from disturbance by climbers, hikers and slackliners. (nps.gov) The park had already shown strong numbers in 2024, when wildlife managers surveyed 43 cliff sites and documented 17 breeding pairs, 15 nests and 25 baby peregrines. The 2025 season did not beat that chick count, but it did set a park record for newly found nest sites. (yosemite.org) (yosemiteaudubon.org) For Yosemite, the result is visible on the walls themselves: more occupied ledges, more young birds leaving nests, and more evidence that a species once missing from the park is now spreading across it again. (discoverwildlife.com)