Nobody – and we mean nobody – flies faster than the peregrine falcon.
They’ve been clocked at 240 miles per hour.
I mean, they’re basically feathered fighter jets.
But catching their favorite foods, like this pigeon, isn’t as easy as you’d think.
So a peregrine needs much more than raw speed to get a meal.
First, it scans for prey with its phenomenal vision.
It can see about twice as far as we can.
Here’s why.
Both humans and peregrines have a spot at the very back of their eyes where vision is
sharpest.
It’s called a fovea.
But peregrine falcons have an extra one which helps with depth perception at high speed.
That helps it lock onto its prey – or in this case, a lure the falconer is using to
mimic a pigeon trying to get away.
Most birds of prey, like this red-tailed hawk, have a prominent ridge above their eyes that
shades against the sun.
But, the peregrine's ridge is much smaller.
A bigger ridge can create drag, which could slow the bird down.
So instead, peregrines rely on dark feathers below their eyes to reduce glare, like black
marks on a football player’s face.
In the air, peregrines are super maneuverable, thanks to the shape of their wings.
They’re angled and compact, unlike the broader wings that owls use for gliding…
Or hawks use for soaring.
A peregrine’s long, stiff feathers also help slice through the air smoothly.
And of course, there is the peregrine’s signature move: the stoop.
This dive turns the bird into an aerodynamic missile aimed right at its prey.
But being fast has its downsides.
At high speed, the air pressure on its face is intense, potentially suffocating.
So peregrines have these little bones, called tubercles, inside their nostrils.
They slow down the air going into their lungs.
Jet engines have the same kind of thing.
Once a falcon zeros in on a bird, then comes the really hard part: taking it down.
It hits the bird with a huge amount of force, either knocking it to the ground or stabbing
it with eight razor-sharp talons.
And if that doesn’t do the job, peregrines have a special sharp notch on their beaks
– known as a tomial tooth or killing tooth – to bite through the necks of their prey.
Dinner is served.
Hey Deep Peeps, like things with wings?
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