falcon drawing
Monday, November 2, 2009
Falco severus
The Oriental Hobby (Falco severus) is a species of falcon typically 27-30 cm long.
It can be found in the eastern Himalayas and ranges to southern China, Hainan
and southwards through Indochina to Southern Asia and Australasia.
It has been recorded as a vagrant from Malaysia.
Falco cuvierii
The African Hobby (Falco cuvierii) is a species of bird of prey in the Falconidae family.
It is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
It is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Facts about animals
1. In many circuses, wild and exotic animals are trained
through the use of intimidation and physical abuse.
Former circus employees have reported seeing animals beaten, whipped, poked
with sharp objects and even burned to force them to learn their routines!
2. Elephants who perform in circuses are often kept in chains
for as long as 23 hours a day from the time they are babies.
3. More than 15 million warm-blooded animals are used in research every year.
4. Scientists estimate that 100 species go extinct every day!
That's about one species every 15 minutes.
5. Dog fighting and cock-fighting are illegal in all 50 states.
6. It is estimated that on average it takes 1,000 dogs to maintain a mid-sized racetrack operation. New greyhounds are continually entering the system to replace greyhounds that grade-off due to injury, age or poor performance.
There are currently over 30 tracks operating in the United States.
7. Tens of thousands of wild and domesticated horses from the United States are cruelly slaughtered every year to be used for horsemeat in Europe and Asia. Since the last horse slaughter plants in the U.S. were closed in 2007, thousands of horses have been shipped to Canada and Mexico for slaughter.
8. Many studies have found a link between cruelty to animals and other forms of interpersonal violence.
9. Neglect and abandonment are the most common forms of companion
animal abuse in the United States.
11. A fur coat is pretty cool—for an animal to wear.
Eighteen red foxes are killed to make one fox-fur coat, 55 minks to make a mink coat.
Falco subbuteo
The Eurasian Hobby is a Southern African bird that belongs
to the Falconidae bird family group which includes birds such as Falcons.
The description for the Eurasian Hobby (Latin name Falco subbuteo) can be found in the 7th Edition of the Roberts Birds of Southern Africa.
This bird is known as Hobby Falcon in the Roberts 6th Edition.
There have been no changes in the Latin name for the Eurasian Hobby between the Roberts 6th and Roberts 7th Edition
The Eurasian Hobby is known in Afrikaans as Europese Boomvalk.
The Eurasian Hobby has a height of 36 cms and weighs around 200 gms.
The head is coloured black while the bill is coloured grey.
The Falco subbuteo has a white, black coloured throat, yellow legs and a brown coloured back. The eyes are brown.
Head is black
Eyes are brown
Bill is grey
Legs are yellow
Throat is white, black
Back is brown
Feeding Habits
This bird forages for food on the ground
The Falco subbuteo attacks its prey aerially and feeds on
wing or takes the prey to a secluded venue where it is killed, torn into small pieces and eaten
This bird is a noctunal feeder and is able to forage in the dark because
of the enhanced night vision. It also forages at this time because that?s when the prey comes out in the open.
The Falco subbuteo attacks smaller birds in flight and uses its sharp claws to break the bird's neck. Some of the birds are attacked in their nests while others are killed on the ground. The Eurasian Hobby eats the eggs of its victim.
This bird eats insects such as butterflies, bees, wasps, locusts and ants.
These invertebrates are usually hawked aerially, killed and then eaten .
Breeding, Habitat and Nesting Habits ...
The Eurasian Hobby is a monogamous bird which means that the bird finds and breeds with one partner for the rest of its life. The bird lays between eggs and they are coloured .
The nest is built high up in the tree canopy and is protected from predators by branches and the dense green foligae.
The Eurasian Hobby is mainly found in light and densely wooded forests, where there are Mopane trees.
This bird is very common in most of the Southern African Forests
Seen in Flocks, Singles or Pairs Normally ...
The Eurasian Hobby is mainly seen singly or in pairs in the wild.
It is also seen in flocks
Falco deiroleucus
The Orange-breasted Falcon (Falco deiroleucus) is a bird of the falcon family.
It is probably closely related to and looks like a larger version of the Bat Falcon.
These two, in turn, are probably closest to the Aplomado Falcon
and constitute a rather old American lineage of Falcos.
It is found from southern Mexico to northern Argentina. It's a medium sized bird (average length 35 centimeters).
It is a bird predator, with strong talons
that enable it to catch prey in flight, and is considered by some - as the German-Brazilian ornithologist Helmut Sick - as filling the ecological niche of the Peregrine Falcon as a breeding species in Tropical America.
The Orange-breasted Falcon, however, seems to favor more heavily wooded habitats than the Peregrine, therefore the species does not seem to
be in ecological competition with Peregrine Falcons wintering in South America.
source:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Falco rufigularis
The Bat Falcon (Falco rufigularis) is a falcon that is a resident breeder in tropical Mexico, Central and South America and Trinidad.
It was long known as Falco albigularis; the name Falco fusco-coerulescens or Falco fuscocaerulescens, long used for the Aplomado Falcon
are now believed to refer to the present species .
Bat falcon adult males measure 24-29 cm (8-10 in.) in length with a wingspan of 56-58 cm (18-19 in.) females also range from 24-29 cm (8-10 in.)
in length but have a larger wingspan, which ranges between 65 and 67 cm (21-22 in.)
in length.
The head and upper parts of their body are black, with grayish edging to contour the feathers from their upper back to tail coverts.
Their throat and upper chest is white and tan extending to their neck.
They have a long black tail with many fine white or gray stripes, and buff tip.
The bat falcon has deep brown irises that may help camouflage while hunting at night.
They also have small hooked beaks that allow the bat falcon to easily tear its meat.
Falco columbarius
The merlin, Falco columbarius, occurs in northern
coniferous forests around the world.
In North America, it breeds across Canada and in the
United States in Alaska and the northern Rocky Mountains. Populations in Canada and Alaska migrate south to winter in the western U. S., Mexico, and eastern coastal areas.
Migrants may cross large bodies of water.
During nonbreeding periods, a wide variety of habitats are used, including marshes, deserts, seacoasts, open woodlands, fields, and other open habitats.
Breeding sites are usually in conifer woodland or wooded prairie and are frequently near water.
Nests are built in trees in abandoned crow, magpie, hawk, or squirrel nests, or sometimes in natural tree cavities, abandoned woodpecker holes, bare cliff ledges, or on the ground in the arctic. Birds frequently return to the same nesting area in successive years.
Most eggs are laid in late May; clutches may contain between two and seven eggs, although usually three to five eggs are laid. Incubation lasts thirty-one or thirty-two days, and is done mostly by the female while the male brings food to the nest.
Young fledge after twenty-five to thirty-five days, but remain dependent on their parents for food for two to five more weeks.
Yearling males may help their parents raise young.
The diet of this hawk consists primarily of small to medium-sized birds
often flocking species. Large flying insects may be important prey for young learning to hunt.
At times, this bird may cache (store for late use) prey.
Falco femoralis
The Aplomado Falcon, Falco femoralis, is a medium-sized falcon of the Americas.
The species' largest contiguous range is in South America, but not in the deep interior Amazon Basin.
It was long known as Falco fusco-coerulescens or Falco fuscocaerulescens, but these names are now believed to refer to the Bat Falcon (F. rufigularis).
Its resemblance in shape to the hobbies accounts for its old name Orange-chested Hobby. Aplomado is an unusual Spanish word for "lead-colored", referring to the blue-grey areas of the plumage – an approximate English translation would be "leaden falcon".
Spanish names for the species include halcón aplomado and halcón fajado (roughly "banded falcon" in reference to the characteristic pattern); in Brazil it is known as falcão-de-coleira.
source:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Falco sparverius
he American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) is a small falcon.
This bird was (and sometimes still is) colloquially known in North America as the "Sparrow Hawk".
This name is misleading because it implies a connection with the Eurasian Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus, which is unrelated; the latter is an accipiter rather than a falcon.
Though both are diurnal raptors, they are only distantly related.
source:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Falco concolor
The Sooty Falcon (Falco concolor ) is a medium-sized falcon breeding from northeastern Africa to the southern Persian Gulf region.
It belongs to the hobby group, a rather close-knit number of similar falcons often considered a subgenus Hypotriorchis.
Eleonora's Falcon is sometimes considered its closest relative
but while they certainly belong to the same lineage, they do not seem
to be close sister species.
Falco eleonorae
Eleonora's Falcon (Falco eleonorae) is a medium-sized falcon.
It belongs to the hobby group, a rather close-knit number of similar falcons often considered a subgenus Hypotriorchis.
The Sooty Falcon is sometimes considered its closest relative, but while they certainly belong to the same lineage, they do not seem to be close sister species.
Eleonora's Falcon is named after Eleonor of Arborea, national heroine of Sardinia.
Falco amurensis
The Amur Falcon (Falco amurensis), formerly Eastern Red-footed Falcon
is a small raptor of the falcon family.
It breeds in south-eastern Siberia and Northern China, wintering in Southern Africa.
Males are characteristically dark sooty brown, and may offer confusion with melanistic Gabar Goshawk, but the chestnut on the vent should prevent confusion here.
Also there may be some superficial resemblance to Sooty Falcon and Grey Kestrel, but those two species both have yellow feet and cere.
Separating male Amur and Red-footed Falcons is best done
by the white underwing coverts on Amur Falcon, whereas the underwing of male Red-footed Falcons is uniformly grey.
Females may offer a bit more confusion with a wider range of falcons as they have a typical falcon head pattern.
The grey on the top of the head should quickly rule out confusion with Red-footed Falcons. The female has barring on the lower belly. Red cere and feet rule out all other falcons.
Falco vespertinus
The Red-footed Falcon (Falco vespertinus), formerly Western Red-footed Falcon
is a bird of prey. It belongs to the family Falconidae, the falcons.
This bird is found in eastern Europe and Asia although its numbers are dwindling rapidly due to habitat loss and hunting. It is migratory, wintering in Africa.
It is a regular wanderer to western Europe, and in August 2004 a Red-footed Falcon
was found in North America for the first time on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
The Amur Falcon was formerly included herein as a subspecies but it is nowadays considered well distinct. Nonetheless, it is the present species' closest relative; their relationship to other falcons is more enigmatic.
They appear morphologically somewhat intermediate between kestrels and hobbies and DNA sequence data has been unable to further resolve this question, mainly due to lack of comprehensive sampling.
They might be closer to the Merlin than to most other living falcons, or more generally related to this species and American falcons such as the American Kestrel and the Aplomado Falcon.
It is a medium-small, long-winged species.
The adult male is all blue-grey, except for his red undertail and legs; its underwings are uniformly grey.
The female has a grey back and wings, orange head and underparts
and a white face with black eye stripe and
source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Falco chicquera
The Red-necked Falcon or Red-headed Merlin (Falco chicquera) is a bird of prey in the falcon family.
This bird is a widespread resident in India and
adjacent regions as well as sub-Saharan Africa. It is sometimes called Turumti locally.
The Red-necked Falcon is a medium-sized, long-winged species with a bright rufous crown and nape. It is on average 30–36 cm in length with a wingspan of 85 cm.
The sexes are similar except in size: males are smaller as females as
is usual in falcons. Young birds are buff below
with less extensive barring and duller upper plumage.
The adult of the African subspecies Falco chicquera ruficollis has a white face apart from black moustachial stripes.
The upperparts are pale grey, with black primary wing feathers and tail tip.
The underparts are white with dark barring on the underwings, lower breast, belly and undertail. There is a buff foreneck band. The legs and eyering are yellow.
The voice of this species is a shrill kek-kek-kek.
West African males are known to weigh between 139 and 178 grams, while females are found between 190 and 305 grams.
The particularly large African birds from south of the Zambezi River are often separated as subspecies Falco chicquera horsbrughi
but the size variation may be clinal and the latter subspecies not valid.
The Asian nominate subspecies Falco chicquera chicquera has rufous moustachial stripes, lacks the buff breast band, and is less extensively barred than the African subspecies.
source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Falco zoniventris
The Banded Kestrel (Falco zoniventris) is a bird of prey belonging to the falcon family Falconidae.
It is endemic to Madagascar and is also known as
the Madagascar Banded Kestrel, Barred Kestrel or
Madagascar Barred Kestrel. Its closest relatives are the
Grey Kestrel and Dickinson's Kestrel of mainland
Africa and the three are sometimes placed in the subgenus Dissodectes.
The species has a shrill, staccato, chattering call and a sharp, screaming
call but is usually silent outside the breeding season.
It is fairly common in the southern and western parts of Madagascar but more local in the north and east and absent from the central plateau.
It occurs from sea-level up to 2000 metres.
It inhabits clearings and edges in forest and woodland.
It rarely hovers, preferring to hunt from a perch.
It feeds on small reptiles such as chamaeleons and
day geckos, large insects such as grasshoppers and beetles and occasionally on birds.
Prey is caught on the ground or snatched from a branch or tree trunk.
Breeding takes place from September to December.
The nest is a simple scrape, usually in the old nest of another bird, especially the Sickle-billed Vanga. The nest is located in a tree hole or amongst epiphytic growth.
Three yellowish eggs are laid.
It is 27–30 cm long with a wingspan of 60–68 cm.
The upperparts are grey and the tail is dark.
The underparts are whitish with dark grey streaks on
the throat and upper breast and dark grey barring on the lower breast and belly.
The feet, eyes and cere are yellow and there is bare yellow skin around the eye. Juvenile birds are browner than the adults with darker eyes and less bare skin around the eye.
source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
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