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Male American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) by Don Delaney Via Flickr: Beaver County, Alberta.
Source: Flickr / donaldsducks
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Sharp Shinned Hawk by Armen Woosley Via Flickr: It flew into our living room window this afternoon so while it was regaining it’s composure I ran got my camera and clicked off a few.
Source: Flickr / abwoosley
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Spotted owlet (Athene brama), India by Dr. Tarak N Khan
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The countdown to the beginning of the season has started. Can’t wait to work with my boy again, I miss it so much!
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Source: babyanimalgifs
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Great Gray owl
Source: instagram.com
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Snail Kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis)
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Protecting Aplomado Falcons
Peregrine Fund field biologists Brian Mutch and Paul Juergens have been hard at work surveying Aplomado Falcon nests and banding nestlings along Texas’s Gulf Coast. So far, they have found three occupied territories that were not used by the falcons last year, which is really great news. They report that productivity is also good this year with quite a few pairs having produced three nestlings. Learn more: https://peregrinefund.org/projects/aplomado-falcon
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Anonymous asked:
got any cursed facts about falcons?? 🥺👉👈
compared to hawks, falcons have shorter and weaker talons and shorter beaks! this, combined with a lighter overall build, means that falconkind is really badly unsuited to do the hawk/eagle/owl thing where they just plunge out of the sky and stab a rabbit to death with their feet.
so what they do instead is fly really high in the air, keeping an eye out for unwary birds they could get the drop on, and then they DROP. and as they drop, they curl their talon into a fist, which they use to strike their unwary prey at speeds well in excess of a hundred miles per hour. (this either stuns or outright kills the unlucky target)
and this method works so well that they can even take down birds much larger than themselves, like ducks!
so basically,
FALCON
PUNCH
If I may add, the fastest known speed of a peregrine falcon during a stoop dive (that’s what the “drops” are called) on record is 242 mph! This technically makes them the fastest animal on the planet (if you ignore the fact that they’re getting a bit of help from gravity). Keep in mind though that air rushing into you at 242 mph is no joke. In fact, all that pressure might obliterate any other animal’s respiratory tract, but falcons have bony tubercles (lil nubbins) inside their nostrils that are thought to direct the passage of air in such a way that they can still breathe during their dives and withstand the pressure.
This picture also points out another cool anatomic feature of falcons - the tomial tooth! This small but deadly notch evolved to quickly and efficiently severe the spine of, or cervically dislocate prey. Sounds gruesome, but works really well.
You’ll also notice that many falcon species also have dark feathers around their eyes - in peregrine falcons, they cover more of the face/head to form a “moustache”, but in many other species they form thinner stripes under and/or behind the eyes. These are called malar stripes, and just like the black stripes football and baseball players paint under their eyes, they “absorb” sunlight to prevent it from glaring in the falcons’ eyes when they’re out hunting during the day.
In conclusion, falcons are the coolest carnivorous dinosaurs that are still around to grace our planet today.
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Claw Shadow
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