Wisconsin Public Service revealed the names of three peregrine falcon chicks nesting at their Wausau-area power plant, June 3, 2025. (Photo courtesy: WPS)
(WTAQ) — Exciting news for WTAQ’s Matt Z! Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) has officially announced the ‘newsworthy names’ that will be given to this year’s peregrine falcon chicks.
If you’ve tuned in recently to The Morning News with Matt and Rob, you may have heard this exchange:
Now the results are in, and its official; WPS will be naming one of their peregrine falcon chicks “Matt Tweet” in Matt Z’s honor.
The complete list of names that will be given to this year’s falcons at the Weston Power Plant are:
- “Matt Tweet” in honor of Matt Z from WTAQ-AM
- “Kyle Prey-zorski” in honor of Kyle Pozorski from WAOW-TV News 9
- “Featherson Lehmann” in honor of Emerson Lehmann from WBAY-TV Action 2 News
- “Jade Eggshell” in honor of Jade Henschel from WFRV-TV Local 5 News
WPS announced the winners of the falcon chick naming contest on Tuesday. Unfortunately, Rachel Chirpniak and Rob Soarin’ didn’t make the cut, but were close runner-ups.
“It sounds like, from everything that Matt has said so far, that he is really honored to have a falcon named after him,” said WPS spokesperson Matt Cullen. “Not only was Matt’s name chosen, but WTAQ overall had the most total votes cast for their names in the contest.”
Since the program began in the 1990s, 465 peregrine falcons have hatched at WPS and We Energies power plants.
This year, four eggs were laid at the Weston power plant. As of Tuesday afternoon, all but one have hatched.
After the eggs have hatched, WPS will plan a banding ceremony. The bands allow people to identify each falcon. Birdwatchers can then contact WPS to say where the bird was spotted. Banding happens about 21 days after the chicks hatch.
“That’s when we can take the chicks out of the nest so that we’re not disrupting the overall success of the nest, but we’re also able to place those bands on their legs at that particular time so that they can continue to grow and those bands will not hinder their development,” said Cullen.
The chicks will officially receive their names at that ceremony. Cullen says the names won’t be assigned randomly.
Each individual falcon does have its own personality. So it’ll be interesting to see once we get to the banding event, does one falcon look like Matt maybe more than another? Which one represents Matt the best? Which one can be closely compared to him? All of that is done on the fly the day of.
The official date for the banding ceremony has not yet been decided, but it will likely be in early June. Matt Z. is invited and will have the opportunity to meet his falcon.
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