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Prairie Falcon Fact Sheet

Description: The prairie falcon (Falco mexicanus) belongs to the family Falconidae. The beak is bluish with a dark tip. Top of head is variably gray-brown streaked dusky. Part of the cheek and the throat is very pale and a conspicuous, narrow brown-black "mustache" mark extends from below forward edge of the eye down the side of the chin. Dorsal feathers of back and wings are light tan. Underparts are whitish or somewhat buffy. The breast is light with an increasing number of blackish spots going posteriorly. Legs and feet are yellow with black talons. The tail varies from grayish to rusty and generally has a brownish cast, about ten dusky bars, and is tipped with white.

Juvenile plumage is developed by about forty days post-hatching and retained about one year. It differs as follows. At first, the beak is bluish with a dusky tip. The cere and eye-ring are also bluish until mid-way through first year. The pale stripe over the eye is more prominant. The crown and dorsum is darker more or less toward sooty. Chin is white but remainder of underparts are more heavily marked with larger dark spots including the upper breast. The tail also is darker and barring is more numerous. Legs and feet are pale bluish at first becoming more yellow mid-way through the first year.

Field Identification: A sizable pointed-wing falcon about 18 inches in length with a shape that is a bit more trim than the similar-sized peregrine. It is variably tan dorsally in all ages with a mustache mark that is half as wide as the narrowest such mark on the peregrine. Its flight is more buoyant and dashing than the peregrine. A notable field characteristic of the prairie falcon is the black patch underwing extending from the body outward about one-fourth the length of the wing.

Habitat: The prairie falcon is a cold-hardy and heat-tolerant raptor that is found primarily in the arid lands of the West including the vast Great Basin, Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan deserts.

Distribution: The prairie falcon is a widespread breeder from southwestern Canada to northern Mexico. Within this range it may be absent or local because of human activity and ecological conditions. There are few breeding records in the alpine zone.

Reproduction: Usually lays five eggs (7 of ten eyries have five eggs) at a cliff eyrie of any height that is safe from mammalian predators. The ledge is commonly 30 feet above the ground and not located at the top of the cliff. It is sheltered and may be a "pot-hole" overlooking treeless hunting country. Eroded banks of watercourses are sometimes used.

Habits: The prairie falcon is noted for its dashing flight alternating a series of rapid strokes with short glides. Much of its hunting is done with thirty meters of the ground and includes a sudden perpendicular stoop following flapping flight. Hunting methods vary and a wide variety of prey is taken. Much time is spent on lookout where high perches are available. Low-level flights are common; stooping from a hovering position 30 meters above the ground, or stooping from a soar in excess of 1,000 meters. A male prairie falcon stooped into a flock of violet-green swallows that followed as it mounted up and killed one quickly in the style of a merlin.

Taken from: Handbook of North American Birds, Volume 5. Edited by Ralph S. Palmer. Yale University Press, 1988.