“Peregrine Falcon, Flying Ace”

It will be hard to keep up trying to meet this flying ace of the raptor world: the Peregrine falcon is the fastest animal on the planet. Their aerial dives are clocked at over 200 mph when hunting, but they maintain lower speeds with level flight. They also display impressive aerial acrobatics with mates during courtship or in other pursuits of prey, which are mainly small to medium-sized birds. It comes as no surprise that the Peregrine falcon has inspired aircraft design, especially jet aircraft. Every aspect of this falcon is designed for high speed and maneuverability.

Around the globe, falcons of all varieties have been highly regarded and revered for their ability to hunt (mutual survival), and associated with divine rulership, nobility, transformation, and vision.

Fast facts:

• People have trained falcons for hunting for thousands of years, and the Peregrine Falcon was always one of the most prized birds. Efforts to breed the Peregrine in captivity and reestablish populations depleted during the DDT years were greatly assisted by the existence of methods of handling captive falcons developed by falconers. Peregrines were removed from the endangered species list in 1999.

 

• The word “peregrine” means “wanderer” or “pilgrim,” and Peregrine Falcons occur all over the world on every continent except Antarctica. This name is also given because of their exceedingly long migration routes. Peregrine Falcons may represent travel, adventure, navigation, pilgrimages, or safe homecomings.

 

• In North America, they breed in open landscapes with cliffs (or skyscrapers) for nest sites. They can be found nesting at elevations up to about 12,000 feet, as well as along rivers and coastlines or in cities

 

• They eat mostly birds of a very wide variety. Typical prey include shorebirds, ptarmigan, ducks, grebes, gulls, storm-petrels, pigeons, and songbirds including jays, thrushes, longspurs, buntings, larks, waxwings, and starlings.

 

• Males typically select a few possible nest ledges at the beginning of each season and the female chooses from these. The birds do no nest building beyond a ritualized scraping of the nest ledge to create a depression in the sand, gravel, or other substrate of the nest site. They may also reuse other bird nests at an elevation.

 

• Though the Peregrine Falcon is an elite predator, it does have its own predators, including Gyrfalcons, eagles, Great Horned owls, and other Peregrines.

Sources: Audubon Society and Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Original mixed media on raw stretched canvas with hard maple float frame.

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