Prairie Falcon

Description:

Medium falcon with brown upperparts, dark-spotted pale underparts, dark brown moustache stripe. Dark underwing-bars visible in flight. Feeds on small birds and mammals, and large insects. Swift flight with rapid wing beats. Sometimes alternates several rapid wing beats with a glide.

Habitat:

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a 98-acre (40 ha) zoo, aquarium, botanical garden, natural history museum, publisher, and art gallery founded in 1952. Located just west of Tucson, Arizona, it features two miles (3.2 km) of walking paths traversing 21 acres (8.5 ha) of desert landscape. The nonprofit organization focuses on the interpretation of the natural history, plants and animals of the Sonoran Desert.

Notes:

A birds-of-prey demonstration is held in the open desert and spectators watch from the flight path. The birds fly so close visitors often feel the brush of feathers. The museum hosts two demonstrations daily from mid-October through mid-April. The birds fly completely untethered, without any jesses (leg straps) and most often without leg rings. Only birds native to the Sonoran Desert Region are flown. A featured species is Harris's Hawks, the only raptor species in the world to hunt as a family using strategy, like wolves. The morning and afternoon demonstrations showcase different species, so each is unique. Species include: Harris's Hawk, peregrine falcons, barn owls, red-tailed hawks, ferruginous hawk, great horned owl, gray hawk, prairie falcon, and chihuahuan raven.