Even Michael Schumacher in his Ferrari couldn’t reach him. peregrine falcon (falco peregrinus) is the true lord of the skies when he goes hunting; There is no animal that can keep up with him. It can reach speeds of up to 380 km/h and even 400 km/h while swooping down on its prey. A real unbeatable flying bullet. Not surprisingly, these exceptional skills inspired filmmaker George Lucas when he named one of his starships the ‘millennium hawk’.
No one expected him because of his size. The peregrine falcon is a small and compact bird, but it has also been endowed by evolution with good muscles and wings ready to plan.
Its entire anatomy seems designed for one purpose: to increase its speed.. And in order not to steal a bit of aerodynamics, its tail tends to hide under its wings when it begins its massive dive.
In fact, if it can reach that speed while descending, it’s because it actually shares the physical and aerodynamic fundamentals of a missile. It is what keeps you alive. Its fall from a height allows it to catch small and medium-sized birds completely off guard.which he knocked down in mid-flight with one blow of his legs.
The first thing a peregrine falcon does when it sees good prey is to devise a perfect plan to achieve its fantastic delicacy. Their hunting patterns are very elaborate and often the capture of a prey is the result of a joint attack of the male and female.
So if they’re flying high, when they see their prey, they usually choose to crash at more than 200 kilometers per hour—sometimes as far as 400 kilometers—and leave it in the air unconsciously.
A study testing the ideal physics of a hawk’s flight found a theoretical speed limit of up to 400 km/h for low altitude flight and 625 km/h for high altitude flight. However, the actual measured maximum speed In 2005, Ken Franklin recorded the flight of a hawk at 389 km/h.
For comparison, world champion Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari Enzo stays at a top speed of 350 km/h. i would lose the race against someone falco peregrinus.
a natural wonder
However How can an animal endure such a violent landing without affecting its senses? To this end, the bird activates various mechanisms that evolution has bestowed upon it for this purpose.
Air pressure from a 200 mph (320 km/h) dive can damage the dive. bird lungsBut the small bony holes in a falcon’s nostrils direct shock waves of air entering the nostrils, allowing the bird to breathe more easily at that critical moment, thanks to the reduced variance in air pressure.
For protect your eyes At such tremendous speeds, hawks use their notched membranes (a third eyelid) to disperse tears and clear debris from their eyes while maintaining vision at the same time.
After the peregrine falcon reaches its destination strikes its prey into the air with one of its claws firmly, stuns or kills him, then returns to him to catch him in mid-air. Then he devours it on the ground.
The pilgrim also spends some of his time perched on stones, noticing any movement. Ornithologists describe its character as somewhat erratic, as “it will sometimes attack and kill any bird that passes by without warning.”
“In such situations, he seems stunned by what he’s doing and can then leave his prey and return to it later,” the experts say.
His favorite flavor is the pigeon, A flying machine that eludes most winged predators thanks to its size, wingspan and flight power. Except for one: the peregrine falcon moves fast, is fast, and throws a punch that stuns the pigeon.
HE falco peregrinus peregrinus In Europe it occupies the British Isles to the west, France to the northwest, north and northeast, and perhaps the Pyrenees and Cantabrian coasts in Spain.
Again, In our country, it is in danger of being replaced by subspecies. brookei, already occupying southern France, most of the Iberian Peninsula, southern Italy, the Mediterranean islands, Greece, Asia Minor and northwestern Africa. Further north, this genus inhabits the Eurasian tundra and islands of the Arctic Ocean, from Lapland to the Lena River in Siberia. calidus.
It presents a marked reverse sexual dimorphism, meaning females are significantly larger and heavier than males.
Its preferred habitat is sea cliffs or inland rocks and avoids forests as much as possible, as survival techniques require flying over open terrain.
However, despite these few preferences, the peregrine falcon often very resistant to change. The same can be found in a nesting pair at sea level or at an altitude of 3,000 meters.
It also adapts to any situation and climate, so it lives in the polar regions and deserts and hot steppes or in the tropics and even in cities. Despite going through periods of famine (due to lack of prey) and serious human damage (by swallowing pesticides and other agricultural poisons), his great adaptability has made him the hero of one of the world’s most successful pages. conservation history.
If only about 650 specimens were recorded at breeding sites in the United States in 1975, it is estimated that this breeding population has grown to ten thousand specimens today when their population was destroyed by DDT.
In Spain, the last census in 2008 puts its population at around 2,800 couples.Widely distributed throughout the Peninsular and Balearic Islands.