🦅 Other Falconry Birds · 8 min
The Peregrine and the large falcons
Why this matters
The Peregrine is the bird most of the world means when it says falconry, and the manual gives it more identification detail than any other species outside the apprentice birds.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to
- Identify a Peregrine by its malar stripe and proportions
- Name the North American subspecies and where each occurs
- Compare Peregrine, Gyrfalcon and Prairie Falcon in size, temperament and range
The Peregrine
Some variant of the species occurs on every continent except Antarctica, and on all major islands except New Zealand and Iceland. It is replaced by desert falcons in arid continental interiors and is absent as a breeder from large areas of tropical rainforest.
The field mark, in any plumage, is the malar stripe, also called the face bar or mask: a broad dark mark running down from the crown across the eye. Many falcons carry one; on none is it as well developed as on the Peregrine. The tail is proportionally shorter than that of a Prairie Falcon or Gyrfalcon, not longer. Incubation is 33 to 34 days; older books often print shorter figures that modern nest cameras have corrected. Young fledge at about six to seven weeks. The Peregrine is best known for waiting-on flights, and it was the bird most commonly used by falconers in the sixteenth century.
Subspecies and migration
| Subspecies | Where |
|---|---|
| F. p. anatum, American Peregrine | Continental North America |
| F. p. pealei, Peale's Peregrine | Strictly maritime: Pacific Northwest coast from Washington to Alaska and the Aleutians. Large and dark. |
| F. p. tundrius, Tundra Peregrine | Arctic breeder, migrating as far as Tierra del Fuego |
Assateague is a name every North American falconer should recognise: a major concentration point on the eastern migration route of the Tundra Peregrine. From about 1935, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland falconers found migrating tundra birds touching down on the barrier islands, and for years those islands supplied a large share of the wild-caught peregrines taken in North America.
Ageing large falcons
The most reliable way to identify a first-year Prairie Falcon, and large falcons generally, is the skin and scale areas: feet, cere and eyelids are blue in first-year birds and yellow in adults. Northeastern Peregrine juveniles also tend to rich reddish brown plumage, where adults are blue-grey above, cross-barred with darker grey, with white to salmon underparts.
Gyrfalcon and Prairie Falcon
The Gyrfalcon is the largest falcon and holds the largest territory of any common falconry species, 14 to 15 square miles in the north. A male Gyrfalcon (a jerkin or gyrkin) averages larger than a female Peregrine, though the two overlap. The Prairie Falcon is not smaller than a Merlin, not delicate about cold, and not a coastal migrant: what characterises it for the falconer is that it is difficult to man.
This lesson is part of the NY Falconry Exam course. Open it in the course to answer the retrieval checks that go with it, track what you have read, and quiz the whole unit. Lessons, quizzes and the glossary are free.