The falcon closes its feet, and uses them to knock the prey out of the sky. When it finds its target, the falcon folds its wings and falls into a nose dive, or stoop, gaining speeds over 200 mph. To pull this off, a Peregrine Falcon flies high into the sky, using its keen eyesight to locate birds flying below. Perhaps its most famous hunting technique is the dive. They typically catch their prey in the air with fast pursuits, rapid dives and other impressive aerial maneuvers for which these falcons are known and admired. They also occasionally hunt mammals, reptiles and insects, and there have even been reports of some Peregrine Falcons specializing in eating bats.
Peregrine Falcons are mainly bird hunters starlings, pigeons, blackbirds, jays, shorebirds, and waterfowl are all fair game for a hungry Peregrine Falcon. The pair atop Fox Hall nest in a box with gravel floor built by UMass Lowell staff under the guidance of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. They lay their eggs in scrapes, or small depressions, that they make in the soil or gravel of a cliff ledge. Like most falcons, Peregrine Falcons do not build their own nests. Once established, the adults will remain in the same territory year-round. They also manage quite well in urban settings-such as the pair who nest on the roof of Fox Hall. Peregrine Falcons live and breed on every continent in the world except Antarctica. They are found in deserts, seashores, wetlands, tundra, grasslands, dry forests and craggy mountains. Peregrine falcons are skilled at catching a variety of prey from small songbirds to large ducks, which allows them to live in almost any type of climate and habitat. Females and males are identical in appearance however, the female can be one-third larger than the male. Immature peregrines are buff colored in front and have dark brown backs.
An adult peregrine has a dark grey back and crown, dark bars or streaks on a pale chest and abdomen, and heavy malar (cheek) stripes on the side of the face. It can weigh between 1 and 3.5 pounds and measure between 13 and 20 inches long. The peregrine falcon is a crow-sized bird, weighing just over two pounds with a wing span of approximately 3 feet. Peregrine falcons are birds of few words they are generally silent but sometimes make a rasping kack-kack-kack-kack sound in the nest. The peregrine falcon belongs to the genus Falco, which is characterized by long pointed wings. It mates for life-about ten years-and is fiercely protective of its young. Peregrines are capable of gliding and flapping speeds up to 60 mph, and of reaching speeds up to 200 mph in spectacular dives called stoops.It’s the fastest animal on the plant, capable of speeds of up to 200 miles per hour. This falcon flies with smooth, shallow, powerful wing beats, often soaring high with wings out flat and tail fanned when searching for prey, then diving and maneuvering at high speed to strike birds in midair. Like all other members of the falcon family, the Peregrine has a distinct notch in the upper mandible for cervical dislocation of its prey. Upper parts of the bird are a dark slate-gray and lightly barred underparts are a whitish color at the throat, shading to a buffy color with elongated spots on the chest, and more dark barring across the abdomen legs and feet of the adult are bright yellow. The Peregrine Falcon has a black hood that extends down along the side of the head in a distinctive wide mustache mark. Plumage is similar between the sexes, but females are larger.
A large, dark, powerful falcon with long, pointed wings and a long, narrow, tapered tail.
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