The peregrine falcon,
Falco peregrinus, Jake's featured flight morph was our favourite animal for years, and we read about it obsessively from a very young age.
It's known for being the fastest self-powered animal (that is, humans in spacecraft don't count) on Earth, exceeding two hundred miles per hour in a dive. In level flight it is actually significantly slower than other members of the falcon family, averaging about sixty miles per hour- not fast enough to take down pigeons and waterfowl, its preferred prey animals. Without its signature diving attack, the falcon would be stuck with perch-and-drop hunting techniques like those used by the red-tailed hawk to capture mammalian prey, for lack of speed in level flight. A gyrfalcon, in comparison, almost never uses diving hunting techniques, but its level flight averages eighty miles per hour and has been known to break one hundred miles per hour, more than fast enough to overtake avian prey by sheer speed and endurance.
The same feature of the peregrine's wings that enables it to dive (and pull out of dives) but prevents it being lightning quick in level flight also has another set of uses: first, because the base of the wings are broader than those of most falcons, the peregrine can actually soar the way buteos (broad-winged hawks like the red-tail) can soar. Most other falcons have much longer, narrower wings, forcing them to flap but preventing them soaring effectively. Second, the peregrine actually has a much lower stalling speed (the speed when the bird loses altitude because it's not moving fast enough forward to keep lift) than other falcons, allowing it to take slower surveys of the hunting grounds without having to constantly be on the move. Finally, the broader wing-base adds a great deal of maneuverability that narrow-winged birds lack; a peregrine can turn very sharply in level flight, despite lacking extreme speeds outside of diving attacks.
In order to maintain the ability to breathe during steep dives, peregrines have a structure on their nares (nostrils) that is unique to the species: a small cone inside the pit of the nares creates a pair of small vortices in the air, disrupting airflow over the nares sufficiently that the bird can inhale.
The falcon's beak has a 'tooth' that hooks backward behind the main hook. This structure is designed specifically to sever the spinal chord of its prey, so that the prey cannot fight and cause damage to the falcon while the falcon is carrying the prey to its nest.
When a falcon dives on its prey, it actually clubs the prey bird with its balled-up talons- like a tiny two hundred mile per hour sledgehammer. Once the prey is stunned, the falcon flares wings to slow itself, then makes a second pass to catch the falling stunned prey.
Peregrines pluck their prey before eating. Compare to owls, who usually swallow prey whole and then cast up fur along with their pellets. You won't find too many feathery bits in the pellets cast by a falcon.
Since diving-only hunting techniques are pretty rare among raptors, the peregrine manages to maintain a solid niche in the global ecosystem: its diet is restricted to highly populous animals that are too fast for other predators to take under normal circumstances.
Despite a severe population decline due to overuse of DDT, a pesticide that softens birds' eggs if they consume it before laying, peregrines have made a massive comeback, and along with the common barn owl, they are the single most widespread raptor species in the world. Their name 'peregrine' means 'wandering,' and their ability to range widely, adapt to a variety of wild and urban environments, and make exceptionally long migrations on a regular basis definitely earned the name.
A male falcon is called a tercel, which means "third," because male falcons are smaller than females by about one third. Baby falcons are called eyases, singular eyas, and a falcon's nest is called an eyrie. The words 'peregrine' and 'falcon' always refer specifically to the female adult of the species, in falconry; when referring to the species or family of falcons in general, the word 'hawk' is used instead, and is treated as gender-neutral.
Historically, falcons have been trained by humans to hunt on behalf of their keepers. Only a king could legally own a gyrfalcon, which was considered the most masterful of hunters, and only somebody of princely rank or higher could keep a peregrine falcon.
A person who keeps falcons for hunting is a falconer or faulkner. The leather straps on a falcon's legs to function as a short leash are jesses. The place a trained falcon is kept is called a mews. When a bird on the hand loses its balance or is startled and flaps excitedly, it is called bating (pronounced 'batting'), and the portable open-topped platform used to transport several falcons at once is called a cadge; the person who carries it is a cadger. The diving attack is called stooping.
The peregrine has a variety of names in many languages, as can be expected from a bird that covers so much territory.
In rural USA, it's called a duck hawk in many field guides from the early 20th century, but now the official name is in more popular use.
In Scotland, it's a blue hawk, or seobagh ghorm in Scots-Gaelic.
In India, it's shaheen.
In Welsh, it's hebog tramor.
In Danish, it's vandrefalk.
In Dutch, it's slechtvalk.
In Finnish, it's muuttohaukka.
The Egyptian solar deity Horus is represented as having the head of a peregrine falcon.
In Norse mythology, the goddess Freyja wore a cloak made of falcon feathers, and she could use it to fly or disguise herself as a falcon.
In Greek mythology, the sorceress Circe is daughter of the solar titan Helios, and one interpretation of her name is 'falcon.'
The word 'falcon' is derived from Latin 'falx,' meaning a hooked blade or sickle.
Aaaand... that's all that comes to mind.
