For fifteen years now, peregrine falcons – a critically endangered species in the Czech Republic – have been thriving on the chimneys of the ORLEN Unipetrol Group. The first nesting boxes were installed at Chempark in Litvínov and have gradually been extended to other sites within the group. Over the past 15 years, pairs of peregrine falcons have raised nearly 80 chicks, and young falcons now nest at a number of other locations in the Czech Republic and beyond its borders.

“Every year, we are delighted to see the falcons returning to our chimneys and raising their young here once again. Over the past fifteen years, we have been able to follow the stories of dozens of falcon families, and it is wonderful to see how places that most people associate with industry have become safe homes for one of the rarest birds of prey in the Czech Republic. “The fact that the falcons keep coming back to us is the greatest reward for our long-term care,” says Lucie Pražáková, director of the ORLEN Unipetrol Foundation.

Chicks from Záluží are establishing new nesting sites

Tall chimneys and industrial structures provide the falcons with conditions similar to their natural nesting sites on rocky cliffs. Thanks to ringing, ornithologists can track the further fate of birds born on the ORLEN Unipetrol sites and confirm that young falcons are successfully occupying new nesting sites.

One of the most striking examples is the male ANW, who hatched at the Záluží heating plant in 2020 and has been nesting regularly at the Trmice heating plant since 2022. Other falcons born in Záluží have also been recorded in Ledvice, Teplice, Čížkovice and Prunéřov, where they are helping to establish new breeding pairs.

From industrial sites to the open countryside

Observations show that young falcons are able to thrive even far from their place of birth. A male named ANU, born in 2020, was recorded three years later nesting near Schwarzenberg in Saxony. Such findings confirm that the peregrine falcon population in Central Europe is interconnected and that individuals reared on the chimneys of ORLEN Unipetrol are contributing to its further development.

“When we started installing the first nesting boxes on the chimneys in Záluží fifteen years ago, our aim was to help the peregrine falcon return to the Czech countryside. Today, we can see that falcons from these nests are successfully bolstering the population even beyond the ORLEN Unipetrol Group’s sites and are appearing in other locations in the Czech Republic and abroad. This is clear proof that long-term conservation and carefully selected nesting sites really do make a difference,” says Václav Beran, an ornithologist from ALKA Wildlife.

Nine chicks this season

Nine chicks were born on the chimneys of the ORLEN Unipetrol Group during this year’s breeding season. Three young falcons were fitted with identification rings at the Litvínov refinery, three at the Kralupy refinery, and a further three chicks were also given their identification tags at Parama in Pardubice. The young falcons have now left their nests and set off to explore the surrounding countryside.

This year’s observations also show that the falcon population in the region remains active and continues to develop naturally. Ornithologists are also monitoring an interesting development at Spolana in Neratovice, where a male originating from Germany was observed this year. This site is also remarkable to experts because no chicks have successfully hatched there in recent years. This was because the female repeatedly destroyed the clutch before the eggs hatched. In future seasons, we will see whether the falcons manage to establish a stable breeding pair here.