The Gyrfalcon

The Gyrfalcon eats mostly ptarmigan, but many other prey species have been recorded
including fulmars, gulls, jaegers, ducks, geese, Rough-legged Hawk, Short-eared Owl, sparrows, buntings, and redpolls.
The female Gyrfalcon regularly stores prey during the breeding season, generally within 100 meters (328 feet) of the nest.
Little is known of food-caching outside the breeding season; in one case, a Gyrfalcon was seen retrieving a frozen ptarmigan and chipping
off pieces of meat to eat, in mid-winter in the Aleutian Islands.
Gyrfalcon is pronounced as "JER-falcon." The name probably evolved from
Old Norse, but linguists do not completely agree on the specific origin of the word.
The Gyrfalcon sometimes bathes in runoff water of still-frozen rivers.
Mostly birds, especially ptarmigan. Also consumes mammals, ranging in size from voles to hares.

dig stu red del yahoo face spu slash furl twit tech simpy buz mixx

Gyrfalcon - Range Map

Gyrfalcon Range Map

dig stu red del yahoo face spu slash furl twit tech simpy buz mixx

Gyrfalcon

The gyrfalcon is the largest of all falcon species.
The Gyrfalcon breeds on Arctic coasts and islands of North America, Europe and Asia.
It is mainly resident, but some Gyrfalcons disperse more widely
after the breeding season, or in winter .
Its scientific name is composed of the Latin terms for a falcon, Falco, and for
someone who lives in the countryside, rusticolus.
This species is a very large falcon, about the same size as the largest buteos.
Males are 48 to 61 cm long, weigh 805 to 1350 g
and have a wingspan from 110 to 130 cm (43 to 51 in).
Females are rather bulkier and larger at 51 to 65 cm (20 to 26 in) long,
a weight of 1180 to 2100 g (2.6 to 4.6 lbs) and have a wingspan ranging from 124 to 160 cm .
In dimensions, gyrfalcons lie between
a large Peregrine Falcon and a hawk in general structure; they are unmistakably falcons with pointed wings, but are stockier, broader-winged, and longer-tailed than the Peregrine.

dig stu red del yahoo face spu slash furl twit tech simpy buz mixx

saker falcon pictures

saker falcon pictures

dig stu red del yahoo face spu slash furl twit tech simpy buz mixx

United Arab Emirates arab falcons stamps

United Arab Emirates arab falcons stamps - issued on November 17, 2003.

dig stu red del yahoo face spu slash furl twit tech simpy buz mixx

falcon - stamps

falcon stamps

dig stu red del yahoo face spu slash furl twit tech simpy buz mixx

Saker Falcon Facts

Origin - Southeast Europe and into Asia.
Habitat - Mostly in open plains or steppes.
Nesting -Often nests in heronries.
Facts -The Saker is a ferocious falcon and often attacks prey larger than itself.
It will prey on a wide range of animals, mainly rodents, or birds such as pigeons, partridges, etc.
The Saker is significantly larger than the Peregrine falcon.
It has a large wingspan and needs lots of space to fly in, so it excels
at long distance flying. It can be identified by its brownish colouring similar to the kestrel.
This bird is a great favourite with falconers.

dig stu red del yahoo face spu slash furl twit tech simpy buz mixx

The Saker Falcon

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.

dig stu red del yahoo face spu slash furl twit tech simpy buz mixx

Falcon - pictures

Falcon - pictures

dig stu red del yahoo face spu slash furl twit tech simpy buz mixx

Laggar Falcon

The Laggar Falcon (Falco jugger) is a mid-sized bird of prey which occurs
in the Indian subcontinent from
extreme south-east Iran, south-east Afghanistan, Pakistan, through India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and north-west Myanmar.
It resembles the Lanner Falcon but is darker overall, and has blackish "trousers"
(tibiotarsus feathers).
Fledglings have an almost entirely dark underside
and first-year subadult birds still retain much dark on the belly.
This species belongs to a close-knit complex of falcons known as hierofalcons.
In this group, there is ample evidence for rampant hybridization and incomplete lineage sorting which confounds analyses of DNA sequence
data to a massive extent; molecular studies with small sample sizes can simply not be expected to yield reliable conclusions in the entire hierofalcon group.
The radiation of the entire living diversity of hierofalcons seems to have
taken place in the Eemian interglacial at the start of the Late Pleistocene, a mere 130,000-115,000 years ago; the Laggar Falcon represents a lineage
that arrived at its present range out of eastern Africa by way of the Arabian Peninsula which during that time had a more humid climate than today.
Laggar Falcons used to be the most common falcons in the region, but numbers have declined markedly in recent times and today it is probably nowhere
a common species anymore.
The main threats are the intensification of pesticide
use in the region and use as a decoy to trap large falcons.

dig stu red del yahoo face spu slash furl twit tech simpy buz mixx

Lanner Falcon

The Lanner Falcon is a large bird of prey that breeds in Africa, southeast Europe and just into Asia.
It is a large falcon, at 43–50 cm length with a wingspan of 95-105 cm.
The Lanner Falcon is a bird of open country and savanna.
It usually hunts by horizontal pursuit, rather than
the Peregrine's stoop from a height, and takes mainly bird prey in flight.
It lays 3-4 eggs on a cliff ledge nest, or occasionally in an old stick nest in a tree.
Lanner Falcon males are called lannerets in falconry, where the species
is sometimes used as a 'first falcon' by less-experienced falconers.
Displaying a good nature sometimes lacking in more highly
powered birds, what Lanners lack
in hunting prowess they more than make up for in personality.
Outstandingly maneuverable, they use their large tails and
relatively low wing loading to perform exceptionally to the lure and can
take a range of small birds as prey.
One of the few raptors to attack prey head on at times
their tactics of ambush and surprise make them entertaining birds for crowds to enjoy.
They are bred in captivity for falconry; hybrids with the Peregrine Falcon ("perilanners") are also often seen.
Merret (1666) claimed that the "lanar" lived in Sherwood Forest and the Forest of Dean in England; such populations would seem
to derive from escaped hunting birds of the nobility.
In the wild Lanner Falcon numbers are somewhat declining
in Europe, though the species remains relatively common in parts of Africa.

dig stu red del yahoo face spu slash furl twit tech simpy buz mixx

Falcon - wallpaper and phots

Falcon - wallpaper and photos

dig stu red del yahoo face spu slash furl twit tech simpy buz mixx

Mount Falcon

Walker ruins and Red Rocks form the summit of Mount Falcon

Looking west from the Eagle Eye Shelter

Eagle Eye Shelter near the summit of Mount Falcon

dig stu red del yahoo face spu slash furl twit tech simpy buz mixx

Falcon animation

Falcon animation

dig stu red del yahoo face spu slash furl twit tech simpy buz mixx