Includes Cape Verde Peregrine Falcon and Barbary Falcon
- Falco peregrinus
Identification
A large, powerful falcon, 34-50 cm long, 80-120 cm wingspan, and 550-1,500 g weight.
- Thick, black moustachial stripe and hood
- Sides of neck white
- Hooked blue/gray bill
- Yellow eye-ring
Adult male Slate grey to blackish above; buff barred darker below. Adult female similar but can be browner. Cere, legs and area around the eyes is yellow
Juvenile: dark brown above , streaked below
Variations
The subspecies differ in size, mantle shade (mid-grey to nearly black), and head pattern, particularly the width of the moustachial stripe. In general, high latitude subspecies are larger and paler overall, and tropical subspecies smaller and nearly black above. F. p. peregrinator is strongly rusty-red on the breast and belly.
Distribution
Almost worldwide - the most widely distributed bird of any, absent only from New Zealand and polar regions. See taxonomy, below, for more detail by subspecies.
Taxonomy
pelegrinoides (sometimes together with babylonicus) has been separated as Barbary Falcon. However, at the moment only Gill and Donsker accept this split.
Subspecies
19 subspecies are recognised[1]:
- F. p. anatum in North America (south of tundra) to northern Mexico
- F. p. tundrius in the Arctic tundra of North America (Alaska to Greenland)
- F. p. calidus in the Tundra of Eurasia (Lapland to northeast Siberia)
- F. p. pealei in coastal western North America (Aleutian Islands to Washington)
- F. p. cassini in western South America (Ecuador to Tierra del Fuego and Falkland Island)
- F. p. japonensis from northeast Siberia to Kamchatka Peninsula and Japan
- F. p. furuitii on Volcano Islands and Bonin Islands
- F. p. peregrinus in northern Eurasia (south of the tundra)
- F. p. brookei in the Mediterranean basin east to the Caucasus Mountains
- F. p. pelegrinoides on the Canary Islands; locally from north Africa (Morocco) to west Iran
- F. p. madens on Cape Verde Islands
- F. p. babylonicus from east Iran to Mongolia
- F. p. minor from Morocco to Mauritania and Africa south of the Sahara
- F. p. radama on Madagascar and Comoro Islands
- F. p. peregrinator in Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka to southeast China
- F. p. nesiotes on Vanuatu and New Caledonia
- F. p. ernesti from Philippines to New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago and Indonesia
- F. p. macropus in Australia (except for southwestern part)
- F. p. submelanogenys in southwestern Australia
Habitat
Cliff-faces for breeding, hunts over cultivated land and grassland, marshes and wetlands, beaches and the sea. Also increasingly using urban areas to nest/breed on buildings.
Behaviour
Flight
Takes prey mainly in the air, using height advantage to gain speed. Typically employs a high speed steep dive (stoop), where reported speeds exceed 200 km/h. Uses the long, 'elasticated' hind toe to hit the bird without injuring itself; the impact of this often kills the prey outright. Also pursues prey such as Feral Pigeon/Rock Dove in flight using speed from a dive and rapid jinking manoeuvering. Only rarely takes prey on the ground or in water.
Diet
The diet includes a wide range of birds, such as doves, waterfowl and songbirds, including birds as large as Great Black-backed Gull and Brant Goose, up to 2 kg weight. Occasionally hunts small mammals, including bats, rats, voles and rabbits. Insects and reptiles make up a relatively small proportion of their diet. Exceptionally, Peregrine Falcons have been known to eat their own chicks when starving.
Breeding
A scrape on a cliff ledge is made and 3-4 eggs are laid. The females incubate the eggs for 29-32 days. Chicks fledge 35-42 days after hatching. It is increasingly using urban high-rise buildings and churches for nest/breeding sites, to prey largely on Feral Pigeons.
Movements
Most of the subspecies are resident, but F. p. calidus and F. p. tundrius migrate long distances south to avoid the arctic winters experienced in their breeding ranges.
Vocalisation
<flashmp3>Falco peregrinus (song).mp3</flashmp3>
Listen in an external program
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2016. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2016, with updates to August 2016. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Del Hoyo, J, A Elliot, and J Sargatal, eds. 1994. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 2: New World Vultures to Guineafowl. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8487334153
- Collins Pocket Guide to British Birds 1966
External Links
- Specie Profile Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) - AVIS-IBIS
- Bibliography of Peregrine Falcon - AVIS-IBIS
