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Falco peregrinus
The Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus), also known as the Peregrine,[2] and historically as the Duck Hawk in North America,[3] is a widespread bird of prey in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-grey back, barred white underparts, and a black head and "moustache". As is typical of bird-eating raptors, Peregrine Falcons are sexually dimorphic, females being considerably larger than males.[4][5] The Peregrine is renowned for its speed, reaching over 322 km/h (200 mph) during its characteristic hunting stoop (high speed dive),[6] making it the fastest member of the animal kingdom.[7][8] The Peregrine's breeding range includes land regions from the Arctic tundra to the tropics. It can be found nearly everywhere on Earth, except extreme polar regions, very high mountains, and most tropical rainforests; the only major ice-free landmass from which it is entirely absent is New Zealand. This makes it the world's most widespread bird of prey.[9] Both the English and scientific names of this species mean "wandering falcon", referring to the migratory habits of many northern populations. Experts recognize 17 to 19 subspecies which vary in appearance and range; there is disagreement over whether the distinctive Barbary Falcon is represented by two subspecies of Falco peregrinus, or is a separate species, F. pelegrinoides.
rocky coastline
5 Comments
This is one of my favourite birds :)
Nice shot..
Wow. Great spotting!
Donna, you've got a lot of great raptor photos! Yours are partly why I wanted to extend the below mission...to include your great shots! (and some other "regular spotters" who post pics that I always drool over!!) ;-)
Beautiful photo!! Project Noah has increased the boundaries of the mission "Raptors of Colorado" to include all of North America, and is now called (drumroll please!) "Raptors of North America".
Please consider adding this and any other raptor spottings (birds of prey) to the following: http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/8...
Thank you!