A pair of peregrine falcons have returned to nest in Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia, and park officials said they’re going to give them space by closing parts of the park that are near the birds for several months starting next week.

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       Peregrine falcons are known as the world’s fastest bird, able to reach speeds up to 240 mph when in a “hunting dive” for prey. But their population plummeted in the western United States in the middle of the 20th century, and they were nearly wiped out along the East Coast, too, before a major effort to breed them in captivity and return them to the wild.

       The birds are still considered rare in Maryland and West Virginia.

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       Harpers Ferry had a major breakthrough last spring when, for the first time in 70 years, a pair of peregrine falcons nested in the 200-foot cliffs of Maryland Heights, which sits on the Maryland side of the Potomac River near Elk Ridge, and successfully produced three hatchlings. Only one of the chicks survived and fledged, a process in which the bird develops feathers that allow it to fly.

       The peregrine falcon mostly disappeared. A lone chick took flight at Harpers Ferry for the first time in 70 years.

       “We have every reason to believe that this is the same pair that nested in the Maryland Heights last year, so they’re coming back to that regular, nesting spot,” said Leah Taber, a spokeswoman for the park service at Harpers Ferry. “We’re glad they’re back and their fledgling from last year took off and went out into the wild.”

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       To protect the pair at Maryland Heights, officials said, they’re closing parts of the area from Feb. 17 until July 29. The closures, park officials said, will include several areas near an overlook and some climbing areas. Trails at Maryland Heights and in a climbing area called Union Walls will stay open. Officials said there will be signs and fencing that clearly mark the closed-off areas.

       Park officials said they want to give the falcons space because “human interference, especially during the nesting phase, can drive off mature falcons, cause abandonment of the nest and result in the loss of eggs or death to fledglings.”

       About the size of a crow, peregrine falcons possess long, pointed wings and tapered tails that boost their aerodynamics and speed.

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       They were often found along rocky cliffs and mountains throughout the United States in their heyday of the 1930s and 1940s. But their U.S. population suffered starting in the 1950s, when pesticides like DDT — which was banned in 1972 — became widely used to protect crops from insects. The falcons would prey on small birds that had ingested poisoned insects, and that caused the female falcons to produce eggs that did not have enough calcium, making them crack easily.

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       By the mid-1960s, the peregrine falcon population dropped by more than 70 percent in the western United States. Meanwhile, from Maine to Georgia, their population dwindled from 350 nesting pairs to none, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

       A loon came to rest in a suburban Virginia pond. The ‘loonarazzi’ is following its every move.

       A nationwide push to revive their population started in 1970, as the birds were bred in captivity and eventually reintroduced into their natural habitats. In 1999, peregrine falcons were taken off the endangered species list, although they are still protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

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       More than 6,000 captive-bred peregrine falcons were reintroduced between 1974 and 1997 in 34 states. Maryland and Virginia now have over 50 pairs of “successfully breeding” peregrine falcons, according to wildlife experts.

       At Harpers Ferry, the Park Service began in the early 2000s to relocate peregrine falcons from man-made structures to the park, but none returned to nests there until 2015, when an adult female started to be seen regularly at Maryland Heights. Since then, officials said, several peregrine falcons have nested, but no pair had successfully hatched chicks until last spring.