![]() ![]() The second group contains slightly larger (on average) and more elegant species, the hobbies and relatives. Kestrels feed chiefly on terrestrial vertebrates and invertebrates of appropriate size, such as rodents, reptiles, or insects. The first contains the kestrels (probably excepting the American Kestrel) usually small and stocky falcons of mainly brown upperside color and sometimes sexually dimorphic three African species that are generally grey in color stand apart from the typical members of this group. The falcon lineage may however be somewhat older than this and given the distribution of fossil and living Falco taxa is probably of North American, African or possibly Middle Eastern or European in origin.įalcons are roughly divisible into three or four groups. This coincides with a period in which many modern genera of birds became recognizable in the fossil record. The oldest fossils tentatively assigned to this genus are from the Late Miocene, less than 10 million years ago. Systematics and evolutionĬompared to other birds of prey, the fossil record of the falcons is not well distributed in time. The falcon and corvids scored highest on this scale. In February 2005, the Canadian ornithologist Louis Lefebvre announced a method of measuring avian intelligence in terms of their innovation in feeding habits. The technique of hunting with trained captive birds of prey is known as falconry.Īs is the case with many birds of prey, falcons are renowned for their exceptional powers of vision one species has been found to have a visual acuity of 2.6 times that of a normal human. The word arose by mistaken division of Old French un niais, from Latin presumed * nidiscus (“nestling”, from nidus = nest). Some sources give the etymology as deriving from the fact that a male falcon is approximately one third smaller than the female (Old French tiercelet).Ī falcon chick, especially one reared for falconry, that is still in its downy stage is known as an eyas (sometimes spelt eyass). The traditional term for a male falcon is tercel (British spelling) or tiercel (American spelling), from Latin tertius = third because of the belief that only one in three eggs hatched a male bird. The falcons are part of the family Falconidae, which also includes the caracaras, Laughing Falcon, forest falcons, and falconets. ![]() Some small falcons with long narrow wings are called hobbies, and some which hover while hunting are called kestrels. Other falcons include the Gyrfalcon, Lanner Falcon, and the Merlin. ![]() Peregrine Falcons have been recorded diving at speeds of 200 miles per hour (322 km/hr), making them the fastest-moving creatures on Earth. This is to make it easier for them to fly while learning the exceptional skills required to be effective hunters as adults. Fledgling falcons, in their first year of flying, have longer flight feathers which makes their configuration more like that of a general-purpose bird such as a broadwing. The 37 species are widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and North America OverviewĪdult falcons have thin tapered wings, which enable them to fly at high speed and to change direction rapidly. The word comes from their Latin name falco, related to Latin falx (“sickle”) because of the shape of these birds’ wings. A falcon is any species of raptor in the genus Falco.
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