Peregrine Falcon

Latin name: Falco peregrinus

Longevity: Though most peregrine falcons do not live to be 1 year old, a falcon who survives lives 16-20 years in the wild and up to 25 years in captivity

Population: 10,000-100,000

Cites classified: Least Concern

Where found: Arctic tundra to the Tropics. It can be found nearly everywhere on Earth, except in the polar regions, on very high mountains, and in most tropical rainforests; the only major ice-free landmass from which it is entirely absent is New Zealand. This makes it the world's most widespread bird of prey. The Peregrine Falcon lives mostly along mountain ranges, river valleys, coastlines, and increasingly in cities.

Wingspan: 100-110 cm

Length: 34–50 cm

Weight: 530-1600 g

Mating/Breeding: It reaches sexual maturity at one year, and mates for life. It nests in a scrape, normally on cliff edges or, in recent times on tall man-made structures. The Peregrine Falcon is sexually mature at the end of the first year of age but in healthy populations they breed after two to three years of age. The pair mates for life and returns to the same nesting spot annually. The courtship flight includes a mix of aerial acrobatics, precise spirals, and steep dives. The male passes prey it has caught to the female in mid-air. To make this possible, the female actually flies upside-down to receive the food from the male's talons. The Peregrine Falcon is territorial during the breeding season. The Peregrine Falcon nests in a scrape, normally on cliff edges or, today regularly in many parts of its range, on tall buildings or bridges. Cliff nests are generally located under an overhang, on ledges with vegetation, and south-facing sites are favored.

Eggs: Mostly three to four eggs that are reddish brown with darker brown blotches

Hibernation: The Peregrine Falcon winters from coastal Alaska and southern Canada southward to South America

Aggressive?: Peregrine falcons are aggressive in defense of their nests. They will attack birds and mammals that are much larger than themselves when defending their nest.

Hunting Habits: The Peregrine Falcon is often stated to be the fastest animal on the planet in its hunting dive, the stoop, which involves soaring to a great height and then diving steeply at speeds commonly (but perhaps erroneously) said to be over 322 km/h (200 mph), and hitting one wing of its prey so as not to harm itself on impact. A study testing the flight physics of an 'ideal falcon' found a theoretical speed limit at 400 km/h (250 mph) for low altitude flight and 625 km/h (390 mph) for high altitude flight.

Feed on: medium-sized birds such as doves, waterfowl, songbirds, and pigeons, but the Peregrine will occasionally hunt small mammals, small reptiles or even insects. Other than bats taken at night, it rarely hunts small mammals, but will on occasion take rats, voles, hares, mice and squirrels; the coastal populations of the large subspecies pealei feed almost exclusively on seabirds.

Predators: Adults may be killed by other, large birds of prey, such as great horned owls, gyrfalcons, and golden eagles. Nestlings and fledglings may be taken by mammalian predators such as cats, bears, wolverines, or foxes, particularly in nests that are closer to the ground. Humans take eggs to raise for falconry.

Colour/Looks: It is a large, crow-sized falcon, with a blue-gray back, barred white underparts, and a black head and "moustache". As with other bird-eating raptors, the female is bigger than the male. The back and the long, pointed wings of the adult are usually bluish black to slate grey with indistinct darker barring the wingtips are black. The underparts are white to rusty and barred with thin clean bands of dark brown or black. The tail, colored like the back but with thin clean bars, is long, narrow and rounded at the end with a black tip and a white band at the very end. The top of the head and a "mustache" along the cheeks are black, contrasting sharply with the pale sides of the neck and white throat. The cere is yellow, as are the feet, and the beak and claws are black. The upper beak is notched near the tip, an adaptation which enables falcons to kill prey by severing the spinal column at the neck. The immature bird is much browner with streaked, rather than barred, underparts, and has a pale bluish cere.

Interesting Trivia:

• People have trained falcons for hunting for over a thousand years, and the Peregrine Falcon was always one of the most prized birds.

• The Peregrine Falcon is one of the most widespread birds in the world. It is found on all continents except Antarctica, and on many oceanic islands.
  

• Peregrine falcons are perhaps the fastest animals on earth. In a stoop (dive), peregrine falcons have been clocked at speeds of over 180 miles per hour and are believed to be able to reach up to 200 mph.