   #copyright

Falcon

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Birds

            How to read a taxoboxFalcons
   Yeti, a hybrid white gyrfalcon × saker falcon
   Yeti, a hybrid white gyrfalcon × saker falcon
             Scientific classification

   Kingdom: Animalia
   Phylum:  Chordata
   Class:   Aves
   Order:   Falconiformes
   Family:  Falconidae
   Genus:   Falco
            Linnaeus, 1758

                                   Species

   About 37; see text.

   A Falcon is any of several species of raptors in the genus Falco. The
   word comes from Latin falco, related to Latin falx (" sickle") because
   of the shape of these birds' wings.

Overview

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

   Peregrine Falcons are the fastest-moving creatures on Earth. Other
   falcons include the Gyrfalcon, Lanner Falcon, and the Merlin. Some
   small insectivorous falcons with long narrow wings are called hobbies,
   and some which hover while hunting for small rodents are called
   kestrels. The falcons are part of the family Falconidae, which also
   includes the caracaras, Laughing Falcon, forest falcons, and falconets.

   The traditional term for a male falcon is tercel ( UK spelling) or
   tiercel ( US spelling), from Latin tertius = third because of the
   belief that only one in three eggs hatched a male bird. Some sources
   give the etymology as deriving from the fact that a male falcon is
   approximately one third smaller than the female.

   A falcon chick, especially one reared for falconry, that is still in
   its downy stage is known as an eyas (sometimes spelt eyass). The word
   arose by mistaken division of Old French un niais, from Latin presumed
   *nidiscus ("nestling", from nidus = nest).

   The technique of hunting with trained captive birds of prey is known as
   falconry.

   In February 2005 the Canadian scientist Dr Louis Lefebvre announced a
   method of measuring avian intelligence in terms of their innovation in
   feeding habits. The falcon and crow family scored highest on this scale
   .

Systematics and evolution theory

   Compared to other birds of prey, the fossil record of the falcons is
   not well distributed in time. The oldest fossils tentatively assigned
   to this genus are from the Late Miocene, less than 10 million years
   ago. This coincides with a period in which many modern genera of birds
   became recognizable in the fossil record. The falcon lineage - probably
   of North American or European, possibly of African origin, given the
   distribution of fossil Falconidae is likely to be somewhat older
   however.

   Falcons are roughly divisible into three groups. The first contains the
   kestrels (probably excepting the American Kestrel: Groombridge et al.
   2002); usually small and stocky falcons of mainly brown upperside
   colour and sometimes sexually dimorphic; three African species that are
   mainly grey in colour stand apart from the typical members of this
   group. 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) and more elegant
   species, the hobbies and relatives. These birds are characterized by
   considerable amounts of dark slaty grey in their plumage; the malar
   area is nearly always black. They feed mainly on smaller birds.

   Last are the Peregrine Falcon and its relatives: powerful birds, often
   the size of small hawks, they also have a black malar area (except some
   very light colour morphs), and often a black cap also. Otherwise, they
   are somewhat intermediate between the other groups, being chiefly
   medium grey with some lighter or brownish colours on the upper side.
   They are on average more delicately patterned than the hobbies, and as
   opposed to the other groups, where tail colour is not indicative of
   evolutionary relationships

   The tails of the large falcons are quite uniformly dark grey with
   rather inconspicuous black banding and small white tips. These largest
   Falco feed on mid-sized birds and terrestrial vertebrates, taking prey
   of up to 5-pound sage grouse size.

   While these three groups, loosely circumscribed, are an informal
   arrangement, they are probably contain several distinct clades in their
   entirety. A study of mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data of some kestrels
   (Groombridge et al. 2002) identified a clade containing the Common
   Kestrel and related " malar-striped" species, to the exclusion of such
   taxa as the Greater Kestrel (which lacks a malar stripe), the Lesser
   Kestrel (which is very similar to the Common but also has no malar
   stripe), and the American Kestrel. The latter species has a malar
   stripe, but its colour pattern - apart from the brownish back - and
   notably also the black feathers behind the ear, which never occur in
   the true kestrels, are more reminiscent of some hobbies. The
   malar-striped kestrels apparently split from their relatives in the
   Gelasian, roughly 2.5-2 mya, and are apparently of tropical East
   African origin.

Species in taxonomic order

   Common Kestrel
   Common Kestrel
   New Zealand Falcon, a relative of the hobbies
   New Zealand Falcon, a relative of the hobbies
   Peregrine Falcon
   Peregrine Falcon
     * Madagascar Kestrel, Falco newtoni
     * Seychelles Kestrel, Falco araea
     * Mauritius Kestrel, Falco punctatus
     * Réunion Kestrel, Falco duboisi - extinct (c. 1700)
     * Spotted Kestrel, Falco moluccensis
     * Nankeen Kestrel or Australian Kestrel, Falco cenchroides
     * Common Kestrel, Falco tinnunculus
          + Rock Kestrel, Falco tinnunculus rupicolus
     * Greater Kestrel, Falco rupicoloides
     * Fox Kestrel, Falco alopex
     * Lesser Kestrel, Falco naumanni
     * Grey Kestrel, Falco ardosiaceus
     * Dickinson's Kestrel, Falco dickinsoni
     * Banded Kestrel, Falco zoniventris
     * Red-necked Falcon, Falco chicquera
     * Red-footed Falcon, Falco vespertinus
     * Amur Falcon, Falco amurensis
     * Eleonora's Falcon, Falco eleonorae
     * Sooty Falcon, Falco concolor
     * Aplomado Falcon, Falco femoralis
     * American Kestrel, Falco sparverius
     * Merlin Falcon, Falco columbarius
     * Bat Falcon, Falco rufigularis
     * Orange-breasted Falcon, Falco deiroleucus
     * Eurasian Hobby, Falco subbuteo
     * African Hobby, Falco cuvierii
     * Oriental Hobby, Falco severus
     * Australian Hobby, Falco longipennis
     * New Zealand Falcon, Falco novaeseelandiae
     * Brown Falcon, Falco berigora
     * Grey Falcon, Falco hypoleucos
     * Lanner Falcon, Falco biarmicus
     * Laggar Falcon, Falco jugger
     * Saker Falcon, Falco cherrug
     * Black Falcon, Falco subniger
     * Gyr Falcon, Falco rusticolus
     * Prairie Falcon, Falco mexicanus
     * Peregrine Falcon, Falco peregrinus
          + Barbary Falcon, Falco (peregrinus) pelegrinoides
     * Taita Falcon, Falco fasciinucha

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
