Peregrine Falcon Totally Explained

Everything about The Peregrine Falcon totally explained

The Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus), also known simply as the Peregrine, and historically as the "Duck Hawk" in North America, is a cosmopolitan bird of prey in the family Falconidae. 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. Authorities recognize 17–19 subspecies, which vary in appearance and range; there's disagreement over whether the distinctive Barbary Falcon is a subspecies or a distinct species.
The Peregrine's breeding range includes land regions from the 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's entirely absent is New Zealand. This makes it the world's most widespread bird of prey. Both the English and scientific names of this species mean "wandering falcon", referring to the migratory habits of many northern populations.
While its diet consists almost exclusively of medium-sized birds, the Peregrine will occasionally hunt small mammals, small reptiles or even insects. 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 became an endangered species due to the use of pesticides, especially DDT. Since the ban on DDT from the beginning of the 1970s onwards, the populations recovered, supported by large scale protection of nesting places and releases to the wild.

Description

The Peregrine Falcon has a body length of 34–50 cm (13–20 in) and a wingspan of around 80–120 cm (31–47 in). Males weigh 440–750 g, and the noticeably larger females weigh 910–1500 g; for variation in weight between subspecies, see under that section below.
The back and the long, pointed wings of the adult are usually bluish black to slate grey with indistinct darker barring (see "Subspecies" below); 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 scientific name Falco peregrinus, means "wandering falcon" in Latin. Indeed, the species' common name refers to its wide-ranging flights in most European languages. The Latin term for falcon, falco, is related to falx, the Latin word meaning sickle, in reference to the silhouette of the falcon's long, pointed wings in flight. and the Prairie Falcon (F. mexicanus). This lineage probably diverged from other falcons towards the end of the Late Miocene or in the Early Pliocene, about 8–5 million years ago (mya). As the Peregrine-hierofalcon group includes both Old World and North American species, it's likely that the lineage originated in western Eurasia or Africa. Its relationship to other falcons isn't clear; the issue is complicated by widespread hybridization confounding mtDNA sequence analyses; for example a genetic lineage of the Saker Falcon (F. cherrug) is known which originated from a male Saker producing fertile young with a female Peregrine ancestor some 100,000 years ago.[ref]
Today, Peregrines are regularly hybridized in captivity with other species such as the Lanner Falcon (F. biarmicus) to produce the "perilanner", a somewhat popular bird in falconry as it combines the Peregrine's hunting skill with the Lanner's hardiness, or the Gyrfalcon to produce large, strikingly-colored birds for the use of falconers. As can be seen, the Peregrine is still genetically close to the hierofalcons, though their lineages diverged in the Late Pliocene (maybe some 2.5–2 mya in the Gelasian).

Subspecies

Numerous subspecies of the Peregrine Falcon have been described, with 19 accepted by the Handbook of the Birds of the World. It is mainly non-migratory in Europe, but migratory in Scandinavia and Asia. Males weigh 580–750 g, while females weigh 925–1,300 g. It was formerly sometimes known as Falco atriceps or Falco shaheen. Its range includes South Asia from Pakistan across India to Sri Lanka and Southeastern China; in Pakistan it's the secondary national bird and a military symbols of Pakistan Air Force. It is non-migratory. It is small and dark, with rufous underparts barred with lighter color. In Sri Lanka this species is found to favour the higher hills while the migrant calidus is more often seen along the coast. Falco peregrinus anatum, described by Bonaparte in 1838, a leucistic morph occurring in southernmost South America, which was long believed to be a distinct species. Its range includes South America from Ecuador through Bolivia, northern Argentina and Chile to Tierra del Fuego and Falkland Islands. It is possibly found on the Kuril Islands and the coasts of Kamchatka as well. It is non-migratory. It is the largest subspecies, and it looks like an oversized and darker tundrius or like a strongly barred and large anatum. The bill is very wide. Most vagrants that reach western Europe belong to this subspecies, which was previously united with anatum. It is the New World equivalent to calidus. It is smaller than anatum. It is also paler than anatum; most have a conspicuous white forehead and white in ear region, but the crown and "moustache" are very dark, unlike in calidus. It is sparsely and patchily distributed throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa and widespread in Southern Africa. It apparently reaches north along the Atlantic coast as far as Morocco. It is non-migratory, and small and dark. Falco peregrinus radama, described by Hartlaub in 1861, is found in Madagascar and Comoros. It is non-migratory. It includes caucasicus and most specimens of the proposed race punicus, though others may be pelegrinoides, Barbary Falcons (see also below), or perhaps the rare hybrids between these two which might occur around Algeria. They occur from the Iberian Peninsula around the Mediterranean, except in arid regions, to the Caucasus. They are non-migratory. It is smaller than the nominate subspecies, and the underside usually has rusty hue. is found in Fiji and probably also Vanuatu and New Caledonia. It is non-migratory. Falco peregrinus pelegrinoides, first described by Temminck in 1829, is found in the Canary Islands through north Africa and the Near East to Mesopotamia. It is most similar to brookei, but is markedly paler above, with a rusty neck, and is a light buff with reduced barring below. It is smaller than the nominate subspecies; females weigh around 610 g. These birds inhabit arid regions from the Canary Islands along the rim of the Sahara through the Middle East to Central Asia and Mongolia. They have a red neck patch but otherwise differ in appearance from the Peregrine proper merely according to Gloger's Rule. The Barbary Falcon has a peculiar way of flying, beating only the outer part of its wings like fulmars sometimes do; this also occurs in the Peregrine, but less often and far less pronounced. They have no postzygotic reproduction barriers in place, but they breed at different times of year than neighboring Peregrine Falcon subspecies.

Ecology and behavior

The Peregrine Falcon lives mostly along mountain ranges, river valleys, coastlines, and increasingly in cities. 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, and hitting one wing of its prey so as not to harm itself on impact. Despite these theoretical values, measurements of real stoops by radar resulted in maximum diving speeds of only .
The life span in the wild is up to 15.5 years. The Peregrine Falcon is host to a range of parasites and pathogens. It is a vector for Avipoxvirus, Newcastle disease virus, Falconid herpesvirus 1 (and possibly other Herpesviridae), and some mycoses and bacterial infections. Endoparasites include Plasmodium relictum (usually not causing malaria in the Peregrine Falcon), Strigeidae trematodes, Serratospiculum amaculata (nematode), and tapeworms. Known Peregrine Falcon ectoparasites are chewing lice Ceratophyllus garei (a flea), and Hippoboscidae flies (Icosta nigra, Ornithoctona erythrocephala).

Feeding

The Peregrine Falcon feeds almost exclusively on medium sized birds such as doves, waterfowl, songbirds and pigeons. Insects and reptiles make up a small proportion of the diet, which varies greatly depending on what prey is available. It requires open space in order to hunt, and therefore often hunts over open water, marshes, valleys, fields and tundra. It searches for prey either from a high perch or from the air. Once prey is spotted, it begins its stoop, folding back the tail and wings, with feet tucked.

Reproduction

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 distance between nests ensures sufficient food supply for pairs and their chicks. Within a breeding territory, a pair may have several nesting ledges; the number used by a pair can vary from one or two to seven in a 16 year period. The pair defends the chosen nest site against other Peregrines, and often against eagles or ravens. The eggs are white to buff with red or brown markings. Chicks fledge 42 to 46 days after hatching, and remain dependent on their parents for up to two months.

Relationship with humans

� See also: Peregrine Falcons in popular culture

The Peregrine Falcon became an endangered species because of the use of pesticides, especially DDT during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Pesticide biomagnification interfered with reproduction, thinning eggshells and reducing the number of eggs that survived to hatching. In several parts of the world, such as the eastern USA and Belgium, this species became extinct as a result. Peregrine eggs and chicks are often targeted by black marketeers and unscrupulous egg collectors, so it's normal practice not to publicize unprotected nest locations.
The Peregrine Falcon was used in falconry for more than 3,000 years, beginning with nomads in central Asia.

Recovery efforts

In the USA, Canada and Germany, Wildlife services in Peregrine Falcon recovery teams breed the species in captivity. The chicks are usually fed through a chute or with a hand puppet mimicking a Peregrine's head, so they can't see to imprint on the human trainers. To release a captive-bred falcon, the bird is placed in a special cage at the top of a tower or cliff ledge for some days or so, allowing it to acclimate itself to its future environment. In the UK, there has been a recovery of populations since the crash of the 1960s. This has been greatly assisted by conservation and protection work led by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Peregrines now breed in many mountainous and coastal areas, especially in the west and north, and nest in some urban areas, capitalizing on the urban pigeon populations for food.

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