Fastest Flyers
By: Jaxson Behunin
Table of Contents
The Way It Looks…………………………………………………..
Bird of Prey…………………………………………………………..
The Diet of This Bird……………………………………………..
Are They Good Pets? ……………………………………………
Homey Habitat……………………………………………………..
Glossary………………………………………………………………..
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Introduction
He’s soaring up in the sky looking for a starling. Suddenly he spots it,
tucks in his wings, and dives reaching 200 mph. He catches the starling.
Did you know this bird is so cool, that you have to read on and find
out some cool facts about this mysteries bird.
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The Way It Looks
Peregrine Falcons are large, powerfully built raptors (birds of prey),
with a black hood, blue-black upperparts and creamy white chin, throat
and underparts, which are finely barred from the breast to the tail. The
long tapered wings have a straight trailing edge and a wingspan of 2.43.9 feet wide. In flight there tail is relatively short. The eye-ring is
yellow, with the heavy bill also yellow, tipped black. Although
widespread throughout the world, it is not a common species
In North America, peregrines are roughly the same size as crows. They
weigh nearly 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) on average. Like most birds of
prey, female peregrine falcons are slightly larger than males.
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Bird of prey
The peregrine falcon’s way of catching prey is either a swift chase or
a fast dive. They hunt small or medium sized birds in a method called
stooping. Stooping is where you bend your head or body forward
and go down to the ground.
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Peregrine Falcons are very strong fliers and often reported to
be the fastest bird in the world. Their average cruising flight speed
is 24 to 33 mph, increasing to 67 mph when in pursuit of prey.
When stooping, or dropping on prey with their wings closed,
it's been calculated that Peregrine Falcons can
achieve speeds of 238 mph. One researcher
Fast Facts
studied trained Peregrine Falcons while
The peregrine
falcon is the
skydiving and described their body position
fastest bird of
prey.
while diving at 150 mph and 200 mph. When
hunting, Peregrines start by watching from a high
perch or by flapping slowly or soaring at great height. Stoops
begin 300–3,000 feet above their prey and end either by grabbing
the prey or by striking it with the feet hard enough to stun or kill it.
They then catch the bird and bite through the neck to kill it.
Peregrine Falcons do have other hunting methods, including level
pursuit, picking birds out of large flocks, and occasionally even
hunting on the ground. Though the Peregrine Falcon is an elite
predator, it does have its own predators, including Gyrfalcons,
eagles, Great Horned owls, and other Peregrines
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The diet of this bird
The peregrine falcon manly eats pigeons,
starlings, seabirds, that weigh from 10 grams
up to birds that weigh two kilos. That is
peregrine falcon eating its prey.
double the
weight of the female. They have a
variety of 450 birds of prey to eat in
north America, but the world wide
number is 2,000 species. They have
been observed killing birds as large
as a Sandhill Crane, as small as a
hummingbird, and as elusive as a
White-throated Swift. Typical prey
peregrine falcon gobbling up his prey.
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include shorebirds, ptarmigan, ducks, grebes, gulls, storm-petrels,
pigeons, and songbirds including jays, thrushes, longspurs,
buntings, larks, waxwings, and starlings. Peregrine Falcons also
eat substantial numbers of bats. They occasionally pirate prey,
including fish and rodents, from other raptors.
Fast Facts
The peregrine
falcon makes a
sound like kak
kak kak
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Are They Good Pets?
Peregrine falcons are not good pets because if you already have a
pet they will attack your pet. They are also not good pets if you are
gone most of the day because they can’t take care of themselves,
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Falconry is where a sport that involves taming and training a
bird of prey to hunt, but not for its self for its owner, who is
referred to as the falconer. This sport was first developed
more but if they have been in falconry then they are good pets.
than three to four thousand years
ago by Chinese and
Persians. During the
Fast Facts
middle ages
The female is
called the
falconry was
falcon, and the
male is called
brought to
tercel
Europe, where it
was called the “sport of
kings”.
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Homey Habitats
If you want to see this unbelievable bird here are some place you
can go to see them. They live in high mountains, hot deserts, sea level,
cities, and the cold tundra are where they live.
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The word "peregrine" means "wanderer" or "pilgrim," and
Peregrine Falcons occur all over the world. In North America they
breed in open landscapes with cliffs (or skyscrapers) for nest
sites. They can be found nesting at elevations up to about 12,000
feet, as well as along rivers and coastlines or in cities, where the
local Rock Pigeon populations offer a reliable food
supply. In migration and winter you can find
Fast Facts
Peregrine Falcons in nearly any open habitat,
The peregrine
falcon adapts
but with a greater likelihood along barrier
better than any
other bird of
islands, mudflats, coastlines, lake edges, and
mountain chains.
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Glossary
habitats-the home of an animal
method-a certain way of doing something
research-to search about one thing
stooping-the method of hunting for the peregrine falcon
talons-The foot of a bird
tundra-a cold environment
wingspan-from one tip of the wing to the other wing
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