Falcon

Falcons are special birds of prey that belong to the genus Falco. There are about 40 kinds of falcons in the world. They live on every continent except Antarctica.

Adult falcons have thin, pointed wings for fast flying. Young falcons have longer wings that help them while they are learning.

One of the biggest falcons is the gyrfalcon, which can grow up to 65 cm long. The smallest falcon is the pygmy falcon, measuring just 20 cm. Female falcons are usually bigger than males.

Falcons are good hunters. They use their strong beaks to catch food. They also have very sharp eyesight. Some falcons can see much better than humans. The peregrine falcon is the fastest bird, diving through the air at speeds of up to 320 km/h.

Taxonomy

The genus Falco was named in 1758 by the Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus. The type species is the merlin (Falco columbarius). The name Falco means "falcon" in Late Latin.

In Middle English and Old French, the word faucon was used for birds kept for hunting. A male falcon is called a tercel, from the Latin tertius, meaning "third." This is because people thought only one in three eggs would hatch a male bird. A young falcon chick is called an eyas. Hunting with trained birds is called falconry.

Falcons come in different sizes and looks. Some are small and brown, while others are larger with gray feathers. They hunt many animals, like mice, snakes, insects, and small birds. The peregrine falcon is famous for its speed, flying up to 390 kilometres per hour. Other groups of falcons, like hobbies and hierofalcons, each have their own special traits and ways of hunting.

Image	Common name	Scientific name	Distribution
	Malagasy kestrel	Falco newtoni	Madagascar, Mayotte, and the Comores.
	Seychelles kestrel	Falco araeus	Seychelles Islands
	Mauritius kestrel	Falco punctatus	Mauritius
	Spotted kestrel	Falco moluccensis	Wallacea and Java.
	Nankeen kestrel or Australian kestrel	Falco cenchroides	Australia and New Guinea.
	Common kestrel	Falco tinnunculus	Widespread in Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as occasionally reaching the east coast of North America.
	Rock kestrel	Falco rupicolus	Northwestern Angola and southern Democratic Republic of Congo to southern Tanzania, and south to South Africa.
	Greater kestrel	Falco rupicoloides	Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, parts of Angola and Zambia and in much of South Africa.
	Fox kestrel	Falco alopex	South of the Sahara from Mali eastwards as far as Ethiopia and north-west Kenya. It occasionally wanders west to Senegal, the Gambia and Guinea and south to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
	Lesser kestrel	Falco naumanni	Mediterranean across Central Asia into China and Mongolia.
	Grey kestrel	Falco ardosiaceus	Ethiopia, western parts of Kenya and Tanzania.
	Dickinson's kestrel	Falco dickinsoni	Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi along with north-eastern South Africa.
	Banded kestrel	Falco zoniventris	Madagascar
	Red-necked falcon	Falco chicquera	Africa, India
	Red-footed falcon	Falco vespertinus	Russia, Ukraine and bordering regions.
	Amur falcon	Falco amurensis	South-eastern Siberia and Northern China.
	Eleonora's falcon	Falco eleonorae	Greece, Cyprus, the Canary Islands, Ibiza and off Spain, Italy, Croatia, Morocco and Algeria.
	Sooty falcon	Falco concolor	Northeastern Africa to the southern Persian Gulf region.
	American kestrel or "sparrow hawk"	Falco sparverius	Central and western Alaska across northern Canada to Nova Scotia, and south throughout North America, into central Mexico and the Caribbean.
	Aplomado falcon	Falco femoralis	Northern Mexico and Trinidad locally to southern South America.
	Merlin or "pigeon hawk"	Falco columbarius	Eurasia, North Africa, North America.
	Bat falcon	Falco rufigularis	Tropical Mexico, Central and South America, and Trinidad
	Orange-breasted falcon	Falco deiroleucus	Southern Mexico to northern Argentina.
	Eurasian hobby	Falco subbuteo	Africa, Europe and Asia.
	African hobby	Falco cuvierii	Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
	Oriental hobby	Falco severus	Eastern Himalayas and ranges southwards through Indochina to Australasia
	Australian hobby or little falcon	Falco longipennis	Australia
	New Zealand falcon or karearea	Falco novaeseelandiae	New Zealand
	Brown falcon	Falco berigora	Australia and New Guinea.
	Grey falcon	Falco hypoleucos	Australia
	Black falcon	Falco subniger	Australia
	Lanner falcon	Falco biarmicus	Africa, southeast Europe and just into Asia.
	Laggar falcon	Falco jugger	Southeastern Iran, southeastern Afghanistan, Pakistan, through India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and northwestern Myanmar.
	Saker falcon	Falco cherrug	Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and China.
	Gyrfalcon	Falco rusticolus	Eastern and western Greenland, Canada, Alaska, Iceland and Norway.
	Prairie falcon	Falco mexicanus	Western North America.
	Peregrine falcon or "duck hawk"	Falco peregrinus	Cosmopolitan
	Taita falcon	Falco fasciinucha	Kenya