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Gyrfalcon
last update: Apr 21, 2009 11:08 AM
Latin name: Falco rusticolus
Population: 10,000-100,000 individuals
Cites classified: Least Concern
Where found: Circumpolar in Greenland, Iceland, across Eurasia from northern Scandinavia across Russia (excluding Russian Arctic islands) to the Bering Sea, and across North America from Alaska across northern Canada to the Atlantic Ocean, including high Arctic Canadian islands
Age/ life expectancy: 25 years in captivity, shorter (but unknown) in the wild
Wingspan: 130-160 cm
Length: 50-60 cm
Weight: 800-1600 g
Mating/Breeding: Monogamous pairs nest on the ground or on cliff ledges, sometimes in old nests of other birds. They do not build a nest of their own. Both adults incubate the 3-4 eggs for about 35 days, although the female incubates more than the male. The female broods the young for the first few weeks after hatching, while the male brings food. After the brooding period is over, the female also hunts. The young begin to fly at 45-50 days and become independent shortly thereafter.
Eggs: 3-4 creamy, buff eggs blotched with red
Hibernation: migrates south in winter but remains within the tundra region
Hunting Habits: quartering low across the ground but also fly high and stoop
Feed on: almost exclusively grouse/ptarmigan
Predators: golden eagles and humans are predators to adults while common ravens are the only know predators of eggs and hatchlings
Colour/Body: The Gyrfalcon is the largest falcon in the world. Despite its size, it maintains a falcon-like profile with a long tail and long wings. Its wings are broader and more blunt at the tips than many other falcons. The plumage of the Gyrfalcon can take three main forms, white, gray, and dark, with many intermediate plumages. White adults have almost pure white breasts and bellies. The rest of their bodies are white mottled with brown. They have dark wingtips. Gray adults have gray upperparts with subtle darker mottling, and white underparts mottled with gray. Dark adults are dark-brownish overall above and brown streaked with white below. There is extreme sexual size dimorphism among Gyrfalcons, with males being only about 65% the size of females.
Interesting Trivia:
- The female Gyrfalcon regularly stores prey during the breeding season, generally within 100 meters (328 feet) of the nest. Little is known of food-caching outside the breeding season; in one case, a Gyrfalcon was seen retrieving a frozen ptarmigan and chipping off pieces of meat to eat, in mid-winter in the Aleutian Islands.
