Comments on: Falcons

By: Darryl Green

Darryl Green — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 09:59:18 +0000

Interesting article. Now I know a little more about falcons. I did not understand all that you wrote, because you use such big words… You don’t hear anything these days about falcons really.

http://hometheater.reviewrequest.com

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 00:30:17 +0000

We will be revisiting Gold Eagles here on this blog, in a very special event, in the not too distant future. Details are Top Secret for now.

By: Mal Adapted

Mal Adapted — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 23:09:19 +0000

dhogaza:

falcons, when trying to fight you off as you take them out of the net, bite like crazy (like the parrot relatives they appear to be).

Falcons and parrots are related? I wonder what (if anything) the sheep-killing behavior of the kea suggests about that? Makes me wish I'd finished that Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology 8^}.

By: dhogaza

dhogaza — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:25:35 +0000

Gyrfalcon’s the largest falcon (and is the falcon pictured in the post). It feeds on birds as large as geese. Gyrs, on average, are about the size and weight of a red-tailed hawk.

The most impressive raptor kills I’ve seen were documented in a video taken in the alps. Golden eagles take chamois there. They’re far too large for a golden to take off and fly with, so what the eagles that were filmed did were to swoop down, grab one from the rocks, and parachute down to their nest, dropping the goat next to it, then landing on it and completing the kill.

Crazy.

By: bks

bks — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 14:51:29 +0000

What’s the largest [healthy] animal that can be killed by a falcon?

–bks

By: dhogaza

dhogaza — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 01:23:04 +0000

sorry for the typos, it’s been a long day at my day job.

By: dhogaza

dhogaza — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 01:21:59 +0000

We’re in the midst of a gripping revolution in the taxonomy of falconiformes, which has led some taxonomists to already adopt a massive split of the accipitridae into possible their own family. Recent DNA work makes it clear that falcons and accipipters/hawks/eagles/old-world vultures aren’t closely related, but that the two groups are the result of convergent evolution.

I’ve captured and banded thousands of hawks and falcons, and there are notable differences. Of cousre, there’s the notched beak that many falcons use to snap the spinal cord of vertebrates. There’s the relatively weak feet. There are behavioral differences that relate to these physical differences – falcons, when trying to fight you off as you take them out of the net, bite like crazy (like the parrot relatives they appear to be). Hawks go after you with their feet and talons.

Anyway, personally I’m excited to see what happens to the taxonomy of falcons and hawks over the next decade or so. New world vultures, of course, have been moved out of falconiformes by reasonable taxonomists some time ago …