The Saker Falcon is a very large falcon.
This species breeds from eastern Europe eastwards across Asia to Manchuria.
It is mainly migratory except in the southernmost parts of its range, wintering in Ethiopia, the Arabian peninsula, northern Pakistan and western China.
During the end of the last ice age - oxygen isotope stages 3-2, some 40,000 to 10,000 years ago -, it also occurred in Poland .
The Saker Falcon is a raptor of open
grasslands preferably with some trees or cliffs.
It often hunts by horizontal pursuit, rather than the Peregrine's stoop from a height, and feeds mainly on rodents and birds.
In Europe, Ground Squirrels and feral pigeons are the commonest prey items.
This species usually builds no nest of its own
but lays its 3-6 eggs in an old stick nest in a tree which was previously used by other
birds such as storks, ravens or buzzards.
It also often nests on cliffs.
The Saker Falcon is a large hierofalcon, larger than the Lanner Falcon
and almost as large as Gyrfalcon at 47-55 cm length with a wingspan of 105-129 cm.
Its broad blunt wings give it a silhouette similar to Gyrfalcon
but its plumage is more similar to a Lanner Falcon's.
Saker Falcons have brown upperbellies and contrasting grey flight feathers.
