Falcon

Falcon Temporal range: Late Miocene to present
Victoria, Australia
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Falconiformes
Family:	Falconidae
Subfamily:	Falconinae
Genus:	Falco Linnaeus, 1758
Type species
Falco subbuteo[1] Linnaeus, 1758
Species
38; see text.
Synonyms
Aesalon Lithofalco Tinnunculus Linnaeus, 1766 Hierofalco Cuvier, 1817 Cerchneis Boie, 1826 Hypotriorchis Boie, 1826 Rhynchodon Nitzsch, 1829 Ieracidea Gould, 1838 Hieracidea Strickland, 1841 (unjustified emendation[2][3][4] Gennaia Kaup, 1847 Jerafalco Kaup, 1850 (unjustified emendation) Harpe Bonaparte, 1855 (non Lacepède 1802:[5] preoccupied) Dissodectes Sclater, 1864 Genaïe Heuglin, 1867 (unjustified emendation)[verification needed] Harpa Sharpe, 1874 (non Pallas 1774: preoccupied) Gennadas Heine & Reichenow, 1890[6] (unjustified emendation)[verification needed] Nesierax Oberholser , 1899 Nesihierax Dubois, 1902 (unjustified emendation) Asturaetus De Vis, 1906 (non Asturaetos Brehm 1855: preoccupied) Plioaetus Richmond, 1908 Sushkinia Tugarinov, 1935 (non Martynov 1930: preoccupied) – see below

Falcons (

Adult falcons have thin, tapered wings, which enable them to fly at high speed and change direction rapidly. Fledgling falcons, in their first year of flying, have longer flight feathers, which make their configuration more like that of a general-purpose bird such as a broad wing. This makes flying easier while learning the exceptional skills required to be effective hunters as adults.

The falcons are the largest genus in the Falconinae subfamily of Falconidae, which itself also includes another subfamily comprising caracaras and a few other species. All these birds kill with their beaks, using a tomial "tooth" on the side of their beaks—unlike the hawks, eagles, and other birds of prey in the Accipitridae, which use their feet.

The largest falcon is the gyrfalcon at up to 65 cm in length. The smallest falcon species is the pygmy falcon, which measures just 20 cm. As with hawks and owls, falcons exhibit sexual dimorphism, with the females typically larger than the males, thus allowing a wider range of prey species.^[8]

Some small falcons with long, narrow wings are called "hobbies"^[9] and some which hover while hunting are called "kestrels".^[9][10]

As is the case with many birds of prey, falcons have exceptional powers of vision; the visual acuity of one species has been measured at 2.6 times that of a normal human.^[11] Peregrine falcons have been recorded diving at speeds of 320 km/h (200 mph), making them the fastest-moving creatures on Earth; the fastest recorded dive attained a vertical speed of 390 km/h (240 mph).^[12]

Taxonomy

The genus Falco was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.^[13] The type species is the Merlin (Falco columbarius).^[14] The genus name Falco is Late Latin meaning a "falcon" from falx, falcis, meaning "a sickle", referring to the claws of the bird.^[15][16] In Middle English and Old French, the title faucon refers generically to several captive raptor species.^[17]

The traditional term for a male falcon is tercel (

Falcons are roughly divisible into three or four groups. The first contains the kestrels (probably excepting the American kestrel);^[17] usually small and stocky falcons of mainly brown upperside colour and sometimes sexually dimorphic; three African species that are generally gray in colour stand apart from the typical members of this group. The fox and greater kestrels can be told apart at first glance by their tail colours, but not by much else; they might be very close relatives and are probably much closer to each other than the lesser and common kestrels. Kestrels feed chiefly on terrestrial vertebrates and invertebrates of appropriate size, such as rodents, reptiles, or insects.

The second group contains slightly larger (on average) species, the hobbies and relatives. These birds are characterized by considerable amounts of dark slate-gray in their plumage; their malar areas are nearly always black. They feed mainly on smaller birds.

Third are the peregrine falcon and its relatives, variably sized powerful birds that also have a black malar area (except some very light color

Very similar to these, and sometimes included therein, are the four or so species of

While these three or four groups, loosely circumscribed, are an informal arrangement, they probably contain several distinct clades in their entirety.

A study of

Other studies

The origin of today's major Falco groups—the "typical" hobbies and kestrels, for example, or the peregrine-hierofalcon complex, or the aplomado falcon lineage—can be quite confidently placed from the Miocene-Pliocene boundary through the Zanclean and Piacenzian and just into the Gelasian, that is from 2.4 to 5.3 Mya, when the malar-striped kestrels diversified. Some groups of falcons, such as the hierofalcon complex and the peregrine-Barbary superspecies, have only evolved in more recent times; the species of the former seem to be 120,000 years old or so.^[29]

Species

The sequence follows the taxonomic order of White et al. (1996),^[33] except for adjustments in the kestrel sequence.

Image	Common name	Scientific name	Distribution
	Malagasy kestrel	Falco newtoni	Madagascar, Mayotte, and the Comores.
	Seychelles kestrel	Falco araeus	Seychelles Islands
	Mauritius kestrel	Falco punctatus	Mauritius
	Spotted kestrel	Falco moluccensis	Wallacea and Java.
	Nankeen kestrel or Australian kestrel	Falco cenchroides	Australia and New Guinea.
	Common kestrel	Falco tinnunculus	Widespread in Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as occasionally reaching the east coast of North America.
	Rock kestrel	Falco rupicolus	Northwestern Angola and southern Democratic Republic of Congo to southern Tanzania, and south to South Africa.
	Greater kestrel	Falco rupicoloides	Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, parts of Angola and Zambia and in much of South Africa.
	Fox kestrel	Falco alopex	South of the Sahara from Mali eastwards as far as Ethiopia and north-west Kenya. It occasionally wanders west to Senegal, the Gambia and Guinea and south to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
	Lesser kestrel	Falco naumanni	Mediterranean across Central Asia into China and Mongolia.
	Grey kestrel	Falco ardosiaceus	Ethiopia, western parts of Kenya and Tanzania.
	Dickinson's kestrel	Falco dickinsoni	Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi along with north-eastern South Africa.
	Banded kestrel	Falco zoniventris	Madagascar
	Red-necked falcon	Falco chicquera	Africa, India
	Red-footed falcon	Falco vespertinus	Russia, Ukraine and bordering regions.
	Amur falcon	Falco amurensis	South-eastern Siberia and Northern China.
	Eleonora's falcon	Falco eleonorae	Greece, Cyprus, the Canary Islands, Ibiza and off Spain, Italy, Croatia, Morocco and Algeria.
	Sooty falcon	Falco concolor	Northeastern Africa to the southern Persian Gulf region.
	American kestrel or "sparrow hawk"	Falco sparverius	Central and western Alaska across northern Canada to Nova Scotia, and south throughout North America, into central Mexico and the Caribbean.
	Aplomado falcon	Falco femoralis	Northern Mexico and Trinidad locally to southern South America.
	Merlin or "pigeon hawk"	Falco columbarius	Eurasia, North Africa, North America.
	Bat falcon	Falco rufigularis	Tropical Mexico, Central and South America, and Trinidad
	Orange-breasted falcon	Falco deiroleucus	Southern Mexico to northern Argentina.
	Eurasian hobby	Falco subbuteo	Africa, Europe and Asia.
	African hobby	Falco cuvierii	Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
	Oriental hobby	Falco severus	Eastern Himalayas and ranges southwards through Indochina to Australasia
	Australian hobby or little falcon	Falco longipennis	Australia
	New Zealand falcon or kārearea	Falco novaeseelandiae	New Zealand
	Brown falcon	Falco berigora	Australia and New Guinea.
	Grey falcon	Falco hypoleucos	Australia
	Black falcon	Falco subniger	Australia
	Lanner falcon	Falco biarmicus	Africa, southeast Europe and just into Asia.
	Laggar falcon	Falco jugger	Southeastern Iran, southeastern Afghanistan, Pakistan, through India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and northwestern Myanmar.
	Saker falcon	Falco cherrug	Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and China.
	Gyrfalcon	Falco rusticolus	Eastern and western Greenland, Canada, Alaska, Iceland and Norway.
	Prairie falcon	Falco mexicanus	Western North America.
	Peregrine falcon	Falco peregrinus	Cosmopolitan
	Taita falcon	Falco fasciinucha	Kenya

Extinct species

• Réunion kestrel, Falco duboisi – extinct (about 1700)

Fossil record

• Falco medius (Late Miocene of Cherevichnyi, Ukraine)^{[note 2][34][35]}
• ?Falco sp. (Late Miocene of Idaho)^{[note 3]}
• Falco sp. (Early^[36] Pliocene of Kansas)^[37]
• Falco sp. (Early Pliocene of Bulgaria – Early Pleistocene of Spain and Czech Republic)^{[note 4]}
• Falco oregonus (Early/Middle Pliocene of Fossil Lake, Oregon) – possibly not distinct from a living species
• Falco umanskajae (Late Pliocene of Kryzhanovka, Ukraine) – includes "Falco odessanus", a nomen nudum^[38]
• ?Falco bakalovi (Late Pliocene of Varshets, Bulgaria)^[39][40]
• Falco antiquus (Middle Pleistocene of Noailles, France and possibly Horvőlgy, Hungary)^{[note 5][29]}
• Cuban kestrel, Falco kurochkini (Late Pleistocene/Holocene of Cuba, West Indies)
• Falco chowi (China)
• Falco bulgaricus (Late Miocene of Hadzhidimovo, Bulgaria)^[41]

Several more paleosubspecies of extant species also been described; see species accounts for these.

"Sushkinia" pliocaena from the Early Pliocene of Pavlodar (Kazakhstan) appears to be a falcon of some sort. It might belong in this genus or a closely related one.^[34] In any case, the genus name Sushkinia is invalid for this animal because it had already been allocated to a prehistoric dragonfly relative. In 2015 the bird genus was renamed Psushkinia.^[42]

The supposed "Falco" pisanus was actually a pigeon of the genus

(Milvago chimachima).

See also

• Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital
• Falconry
• Ra
• Horus
• Khonsu
• National symbols of Kuwait
• National symbols of Saudi Arabia

Notes

1. ^ For example, tail colour in the common and lesser kestrels is absolutely identical, yet they do not seem closely related.
2. IZAN 45-4033: left carpometacarpus
   . Small species; possibly closer to kestrels than to peregrine lineage or hierofalcons, but may be more basal altogether due to its age
3. ^ IMNH 27937. A coracoid of a merlin-sized species. It does not seem close to F. columbarius or the Recent North American species (Becker 1987).
4. ^ A hierofalcon (Mlíkovský 2002)? If so, probably not close to the living species, but an earlier divergence that left no descendants; might be more than one species due to large range in time and/or include common ancestor of hierofalcons and peregrine-Barbary complex (Nittinger et al. 2005).
5. Eemian
   origin of that species.

References

1. ^ "Falconidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
2. ^ Strickland, H.E. (February 1841). "XLVIII. Commentary on Mr. G R. Gray's 'Genera of Birds.' 8vo. London, 1840". The Annals and Magazine of Natural History [series 1]. 6 (39): 416. Retrieved 8 February 2024 – via HathiTrust.
3. ^ "Hieracidea Strickland, 1841". WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species. 26 April 2021. Archived from the original on 2 January 2022. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
4. ^ "FALNOV.pdf" (PDF). New Zealand Birds Online (published 3 September 2020). 6 March 2013. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 February 2024. Retrieved 8 February 2024. (Text extracted from Gill, B.J.; Bell, B.D.; Chambers, G.K.; Medway, D.G.; Palma, R.L.; Scofield, R.P.; Tennyson, A.J.D.; Worthy, T.H. (2010). Checklist of the birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands, and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica (4th ed.). Wellington, Te Papa Press and Ornithological Society of New Zealand. pp. 174–176.)
5. ^ Friedmann, Herbert (1950). The birds of North and Middle America: a descriptive catalog of the higher groups, genera, species, and subspecies of birds known to occur in North America, ... Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum Bulletin, no. 50, part 11. United States Government Printing Office. p. 615. Retrieved 9 February 2024 – via HathiTrust.
6. ^ Richmond, Charles W. (1902). List of generic terms proposed for birds during the years 1890 to 1900, inclusive, to which are added names omitted by Waterhouse in his "Index generum avium," ... Proceedings of the United States National Museum. Vol. 24. Washington: Smithsonian Institution / Government Printing Office. p. 685. Retrieved 9 February 2024 – via HathiTrust.
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13. ^ Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 88.
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17. ^
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18. ^ Harper, Douglas. "tercel". Online Etymology Dictionary.
19. ^ "tercel". Dictionary.reference.com. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
20. ^ "tercel", Oxford Dictionary
21. ^ "eyas". Thefreedictionary.com. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
22. ^ "Dictionary of Difficult Words – eyas". Tiscali.co.uk. 21 September 1964. Archived from the original on 5 January 2009. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
23. ^ Li, Zhiheng; Zhou, Zhonghe; Deng, Tao; Li, Qiang; Clarke, Julia A. (4 June 2014). "A falconid from the Late Miocene of northwestern China yields further evidence of transition in Late Neogene steppe communities". Ornithological Advances. 131: 335–350.
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25. ^ ^{a b c} Helbig, A.J.; Seibold, I.; Bednarek, W.; Brüning, H.; Gaucher, P.; Ristow, D.; Scharlau, W.; Schmidl, D. & Wink, Michael (1994): Phylogenetic relationships among falcon species (genus Falco) according to DNA sequence variation of the cytochrome b gene. In: Meyburg, B.-U. & Chancellor, R.D. (eds.): Raptor conservation today: pp. 593–99
26. ^ ^{a b c} Wink, Michael; Seibold, I.; Lotfikhah, F. & Bednarek, W. (1998): Molecular systematics of holarctic raptors (Order Falconiformes). In: Chancellor, R.D., Meyburg, B.-U. & Ferrero, J.J. (eds.): Holarctic Birds of Prey: 29–48. Adenex & WWGBP
27. ^ ^{a b} Wink, Michael & Sauer-Gürth, Hedi (2000): Advances in the molecular systematics of African raptors. In: Chancellor, R.D. & Meyburg, B.-U. (eds): Raptors at Risk: 135–47. WWGBP/Hancock House, Berlin/Blaine.
28. ^ Wink, Michael; Sauer-Gürth, Hedi; Ellis, David & Kenward, Robert (2004): Phylogenetic relationships in the Hierofalco complex (Saker-, Gyr-, Lanner-, Laggar Falcon). In: Chancellor, R.D. & Meyburg, B.-U. (eds.): Raptors Worldwide: 499–504. WWGBP, Berlin
29. ^
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34. ^
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35. ^ ^{a b} Mlíkovský, Jirí (2002): Cenozoic Birds of the World, Part 1: Europe Archived 20 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Ninox Press, Prague
36. ^ Fox Canyon Local Fauna, 4.3–4.8 million years ago: Martin, R.A.; Honey, J.G. & Pelaez-Campomanes, P. (2000): The Meade Basin Rodent Project; a progress report. Kansas Geological Survey Open-file Report 2000-61. Paludicola 3(1): 1–32.
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38. NNPM NAN 41-646. Almost complete left tarsometatarsus. Probably a prehistoric hobby, perhaps less specialized for bird hunting: Sobolev, D.V. (2003): Новый вид плиоценового сокола (Falconiformes, Falconidae)
    [A new species of Pliocene falcon (Falconiformes, Falconidae)] Vestnik zoologii 37 (6): 85–87. [Russian with English abstract]
39. ^ Boev, Z. 1999. Falco bakalovi sp. n. – a Late Pliocene falcon (Falconidae, Aves) from Varshets (W Bulgaria). – Geologica Balcanica, 29 (1–2): 131–35.
40. ^ Boev, Z. 2011. New fossil record of the Late Pliocene kestrel (Falco bakalovi Boev, 1999) from the type locality in Bulgaria. – Geologica Balcanica, 40 (1–3): 13–30.
41. ^ Boev, Z. 2011. Falco bulgaricus sp. n. (Aves, Falconiformes) from the Middle Miocene of Hadzhidimovo (SW Bulgaria). – Acta zoologica bulgarica, 63 (1): 17–35.
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Further reading

• Fuchs, J.; Johnson, J.A.; Mindell, D.P. (2015). "Rapid diversification of falcons (Aves: Falconidae) due to expansion of open habitats in the Late Miocene".
  PMID 25256056
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Falco.

Wikispecies has information related to Falcon.

Look up falcon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Falconidae videos on the Internet Bird Collection, ibc.lynxeds.com
• The Raptor Resource Project – Peregrine, owl, eagle and osprey cams, facts, and other resources, raptorresource.org
• "Falcon" .
  New International Encyclopedia
  . 1905.