Thursday, 23 January 2014

RAPTOR & ACCIPITER 22/35 - Peregrine Falcon

Peregrine Falcon


They winter visitors to Peninsula Malaysia. There are 17 to 19 subspecies which vary in appearance and range. There are 3 recorded race that visit us. The common one is the migratory race japonensis, which is the most regularly seen subspecies  occurs between October-April and can be encountered anywhere. A second subspecies, ernesti, is a resident in Peninsula Malaysia.

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  females being considerably larger than males.The Peregrine is renowned for its speed, reaching over 322 km/h (200 mph) during its characteristic hunting stoop (high speed dive), making it the fastest member of the animal kingdom.

While its diet consists almost exclusively of medium-sized birds, the Peregrine will occasionally hunt small mammals, small reptiles, or even insects. Reaching sexual maturity at one year, it mates for life and nests in a
on cliff edges or, in recent times, on tall human-made structures like electrical pylons.



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