Species: Falco peregrinus

Peregrine Falcon

Species

Birds

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Species of concern in the Puget Sound watershed

Salish Sea-reliant birds

Terrestrial vertebrates: birds

Encyclopedia of Puget Sound

A falcon with long pointed wings, a dark crown and nape, and a dark wedge extending below the eye; forehead is pale in immature, which are mainly brownish above rather than black or gray as in adults; arctic birds are relatively pale, and peregrines of the northwest coast of North America are very dark, compared to the intermediate coloration of the subspecies (ANATUM) that once ranged across North America; averages 41-51 cm long, 91-112 cm in wingspan (NGS 1983).

Articles:

Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)

August 01, 2013

This article was originally published by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife as part of its annual report Threatened and Endangered Wildlife in Washington

Classification

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Craniata

Class

Aves

Order

Falconiformes

Family

Falconidae

Genus

Falco

NatureServe

Source:
ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.102654

Classification

Other Global Common Names

Falcão-Peregrino - Halcón Peregrino - faucon pèlerin

Informal Taxonomy

<p>Animals, Vertebrates - Birds - Raptors</p>

Formal Taxonomy

Animalia - Craniata - Aves - Falconiformes - Falconidae - Falco - F. PEREGRINOIDES, a North African and Asiatic desert-adapted taxon, is considered a race of the cosmopolitan peregrine by some taxonomists. South American F. KREYENBORGI is a color morph of F. PEREGRINUS (AOU 1983, McNutt 1984). See Olsen et al. (1989) for a study of relationships within the genus FALCO based on electrophoretic patterns of feather proteins.

Ecology and Life History

Short General Description

Peregrine Falcon.

Migration

<p>true - true - true - From Padre Island, Texas, a northbound migrant reached south-central Canada in four days, and a southbound migrant passed through Mexico and reached Guatemala in six days (Chavez-Ramirez et al. 1994).</p>

Non-migrant

true

Locally Migrant

true

Food Comments

Feeds primarily on birds (medium-size passerines up to small waterfowl); rarely or locally, small mammals (e.g., bats, lemmings), lizards, fishes, and insects (by young birds) may be taken. Prey pursuit initiated from perch or while soaring. May hunt up to several km from nest site (Skaggs et al. 1988). See Rosenfield et al. (1995) for information on food habits in Greenland.

Reproduction Comments

Clutch size averages 4 at mid-latitudes, 3 in far north. Incubation lasts 32-35 days, mainly by female (male brings food). Young fledge at 39-49 days, gradually become independent. First breeds usually at 2-3 years, occasionally as yearling. Usually lifelong pair bond. Replaces lost clutches, usually at alternate site. Brood losses apparently caused mainly by bad weather. See many further details in Palmer (1988). In northwestern Arizona, mean distance between centers of nesting areas was around 6-8 km (Brown et al. 1992).

Ecology Comments

Great-horned Owl may be a serious nest predator in the U.S. Severe weather may result in high mortality in far north. Foraging range up to 27 kilometers (Martin 1979); home ranges in Great Britain varied from 44-65 square kilometers, and averaged 52 square kilometers (Brown and Amadon 1968). In Utah, home range radii varied from 0.3 to 29.8 kilometers, average 12.2 km (n = 19; Porter and White 1973).

Length

Weight

1500

Conservation Status

NatureServe Global Status Rank

Global Status Last Reviewed

2000-11-28

Global Status Last Changed

2000-11-28

Distribution

Conservation Status Map

Global Range

H - >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles) - H - Nearly cosmopolitan; breeds on every continent except Antarctica; absent from high mountains, desert regions of Africa, Asia, and Australia, and from most tropical forests; occasionally reaches Hawaii. In North America, much recovery of populations has occurred, but the large area extending from the western Cascades of Oregon and Washington to the eastern slope of the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming and Montana and north into the southern provinces of Canada still was largely unoccupied in the early 1990s (The Peregrine Fund 1992).

Global Range Code

Global Range Description

>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)

ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.102654