Here’s Everything About World’s Fastest Bird – Peregrine Falcon

Through the depth of the fantasies, we, humans, at least once thought about reaching high, flying through the open sky. However, out of the dream world, we can just study that heavenly view and those who enjoy it. The hero of our today’s topic is, the Peregrine Falcon, a predatory carnivorous specie among the aerial beings especially known for its stooping speed of about 320+ Km/h and unmatchable feet of reaching the highest recorded speed of 389 Km/h, which also makes it the King to the throne of fastest being in the Animal Kingdom, hence World’s Fastest Bird. 

One can find these predators all over the world except for the tropical rainforests and extreme Polar Regions. This bird usually settles at high points for better observation of its prey such as cliffs, long trees, and nowadays human-made giant buildings.

World’s Fastest Bird, Peregrine Falcon: Overview

Peregrine Falcon, scientifically known as Falco Peregrinus and belonging to the Falconidae family, is a hyper-carnivorous bird who feeds over other inferior birds, vertebrates, reptiles, and sometimes-even insects. The actual origin of these Raptors is not certain; it might be either Western Eurasia or Eastern Africa. 

However, because of their versatility, today they live around all the continents except for Antarctica due to its extreme Polar conditions. Talking about their physical description, they have a crow-sized body of about 45 cm with a Kilogram as an av. Weight; deadly claws and hooked beaks which when matched with their hyperactive velocity can easily stun a bird as big as themselves in one single head blow. 

Through the centuries, urban pigeons have become their general prey because of their mass availability everywhere. Coming to their color, they have a black head with a white face and black striped cheeks, pointed long blue-grey wings of about 1 meter with dark striped underwings, dark brown backs, and short black tails.

Peregrine Falcons: Journey From Inside Sphere To Open Skies

Peregrines are sexually dimorphic which means they mate for life and live with the same partner to the end, quite ironic. Female Peregrine lay eggs in the months of March-April and incubates them for the next 5 weeks. By the end of the 5th week, the eggs start to hatch, when they do, the male hunts and delivers food to the female for a couple of weeks then the female shares hunting with the male.

Their offspring fledge in about 5 weeks, during this period they learn the art of hunting and maintaining flight from their male parent. These offspring become independent by the end of 2 months and reach complete adulthood in a year.

In the open sky, they are usually at the top of the food chain; they hunt their prey by stunning them in a single thrust to the nape and catch them while they fall unconsciously. If the prey is larger, they stun them and let them fall to death then they eat them on the ground. Then these Falcons live their next 6-15 years hunting and dominating the skies to themselves.

Peregrine Falcons: Present Status

A major cause of falcons declining to the level of global extinction was the mass killing of falcons during WWII to protect the messenger pigeons, hunting by gamekeepers for protecting their game animals, killed by property owners to protect their agricultural lands, and above all, Organochloride chemicals such as DDT (Dichlon-diphenyl-trichloroethane), synthetic insecticides to counter insect-borne diseases in humans, which was later banned by governments all over the world in the 1970s. 

Today peregrines are listed under least extinction threats thanks to the efforts of conservation groups and government law protecting these raptors. Though they are out of threat now it does not mean they will not be in the future and to avoid this we should do something ourselves, in accord. Spreading awareness among others will be the best thing.

World’s Fastest Bird, Peregrine Falcons: Interesting Facts

• The longest-living Peregrine died at 16 years old.
• The Female Peregrines are twice the size of that a Male Peregrine.
• Peregrines do not build nests.
• Peregrines have a fovea center at the back of their eyes, similar to a telephoto lens, which gives them an 8 times better image than a normal human.