Peregrine falcon what do they eat

The longest known lifespan for a captive peregrine falcon is 25 years. Peregrine falcons are active during the day. When not breeding they are primarily solitary and establish and defend territories. Territory sizes vary with the density of food resources. In northern populations, with the highest population densities, the distance between nests averaged between 3. Home ranges have been estimated from to square kilometers. Males and females regularly hunt up to 5 km from their nest site or territory.

Peregrine falcons use a wide variety of vocalizations at different stages of life, but primarily during breeding seasons. Most vocalizations are either between mated individuals, parents and offspring, or in antagonistic interactions. Young beg for food with a call similar to: "screea, screea, screea.

The call is characterized as "kaa-a-aack, kaa-a-ack. It is characterized as "kee-u-chip", but the "chip" portion contains the highest energy and the "kee-u" portion is often left out.

When hunting, peregrine falcons will often give sharp, territorial calls in quick succession, "kee, kee kee Postures are used to communicate aggression and appeasement.

Raising the feathers and bill gaping are typical of aggressive posturing. Submission is indicated by the feathers being held tight to the body and the head held down, with beak averted. Peregrine falcons have extraordinarily keen vision. They can see small objects from very far away and accurately fly at high speeds to capture them.

The most common prey for peregrine falcons is other birds. Birds eaten include mourning doves , pigeons , shorebirds , waterfowl , ptarmigan, grouse, and relatives , and smaller songbirds. The most common prey item is pigeons. Peregrine falcons will also eat small reptiles and mammals. Most frequent mammal prey are bats Tadarida , Eptesicus , Myotis , Pipistrellus , followed by voles and lemmings Arvicolinae , squirrels Sciuridae , and rats Rattus. Peregrine falcons most frequently hunt from a perch with a high vantage point, such as a cliff or tall tree.

They take flight once prey have been detected. They may also fly or hover to search for prey. In some areas, where they may have to rely on insects, lizards, or mammals for prey, peregrine falcons hunt on foot on the ground.

Peregrine falcons are most successful in capturing prey if they can swoop down from great heights. Peregrine falcons capture their prey with their talons, but they generally kill with their beak by severing the backbone. The peregrine then carries the prey back to an eating perch. On the perch, the peregrine will pluck and consumed the prey, or store it away cache it for later use. There is an exception to this behavior. Small prey such as bats may be eaten in flight.

Peregrine falcons are birds of prey. Because of this, they are near the top of the food chain. However, they are not completely free from predators. Adults may be killed by other large birds of prey, such as great horned owls Bubo virginianus , gyrfalcons Falco rusticolus and golden eagles Aquila chrysaetos. Nestlings and fledglings may be taken by mammalian predators such as cats Felis , bears Ursus , wolverines Gulo gulo , or foxes Vulpes.

This happens more often in nests that are closer to the ground. Humans sometimes take eggs to raise for falconry. Peregrine falcons are aggressive in defense of their nests. They will attack birds and mammals that are much larger than themselves when defending their nest.

Because they are high level predators, peregrine falcons play an important role in regulating populations of their prey, particularly pigeons and doves Columbidae , ptarmigan Lagopus , and ducks Anatidae White, et al. Peregrine falcons are susceptible to many parasites and diseases. External parasites include chewing lice Phthiraptera , fleas Ceratophyllus garei , and flies Icosta nigra and Ornithoctona erythrocephala. Internal parasites include strigeid trematodes Strigeidae , nematodes Serratospiculum amaculata , and tapeworms.

Birds of prey are sometimes accused of killing farm animals, such as chickens. Among insects, the prey mainly includes crickets, damselflies, grasshoppers and dragonflies. All in all, the falcon eats around 1, to 2, bird species around the world.

White, Clayton M. Clum, Tom J. Cade and W. When stooping, or dropping on prey with their wings closed, it's been calculated that Peregrine Falcons can achieve speeds of mph. One researcher studied trained Peregrine Falcons while skydiving and described their body position while diving at mph and mph. When hunting, Peregrines start by watching from a high perch or by flapping slowly or soaring at great height. Stoops begin —3, 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.

Males typically select a few possible nest ledges at the beginning of each season and the female chooses from these. The birds do no nest building beyond a ritualized scraping of the nest ledge to create a depression in the sand, gravel or other substrate of the nest site.

Scrapes are about 9 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep. Peregrine Falcons are the largest falcon over most of the continent, with long, pointed wings and a long tail. Be sure to look at shape as well as size—long primary feathers give the Peregrine a long-winged shape. As with most raptors, males are smaller than females, so Peregrines can overlap with large female Merlins or small male Gyrfalcons.

Adults are blue-gray above with barred underparts and a dark head with thick sideburns. Juveniles are heavily marked, with vertical streaks instead of horizontal bars on the breast. Despite considerable age-related and geographic variation, an overall steely, barred look remains.