Scientific Name: Falco peregrinus Wingspan/Size: 3.25’-3.75’/15”-21”

How to identify them:

The male is slate gray above with a heavy dark mustache. The throat is white and unstreaked, the breast buff with fine bars, under parts generally pale. Females are browner while the young are darker buff with very streaked under parts and a barred bail pattern.

Where to find them in Oregon:

Occasional through out most of Oregon were habitat is appropriate.

Preferred Habitat:

Open country, also rivers and sea cliffs and islands.

General Behavior:

It is fast flight, quick wing beats and dynamic dives after prey have made it legendary. It has been the most sought after bird of prey by falconers in the northern continents.

Voice: usually silent except around eyrie, then makes a shrill ‘keck-kek-kek-“ call.

Nesting Behavior:

This bird nests on cliff ledges in hollows on rocky inaccessible areas Has been known to next on big city buildings and feed on park pigeons. The eggs are two to four in number, reddish with flecked and stippled darker red. (Their nesting has been impacted by pesticide accumulation and they have diminished in number.)

Citations:

Udvardy, Miklos D.F.,The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds, Sacramento, Slfred A. Knopf, Inc 1977 P 776, plates 321, 323

Ramsey, Fred L. Birding Oregon, Corvallis: Audubon Society of Corvallis, 1978, p 160

Peterson, Roger Tory, A Field Guide to Western Birds, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1961 pp 67, 74, 78