Specimen Showcase | Our Neighboring Little Jets

Hong Kong Biodiversity Museum
Mar 10
3 min read

Have you imagined seeing fighter jets flying around at 322 km/h in Hong Kong🛩️? These jets with dotted abdomen will dash through the blue sky, taking down pigeons🦅. These speedy neighbors share the urban areas with us, hunting their prey on grasslands 🌱and open areas near your home. Meet the peregrine falcon, 𝘍𝘢𝘭𝘤𝘰 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘴 Tunstall 1771.

These raptors measure between 41-51 cm in length with wingspan of 91-112 cm. The size differences observed between individuals is due to their sexual dimorphism, in which females and males are having different appearances and sizes. A female peregrine falcon displays a pale brown abdomen and is bigger than male whose abdomen is white. Therefore, the females can take up larger and heavier prey than the males💪. Falcon couples love to have their homes at the edge of cliffs or skyscrapers, taking care of their chicks together. Nesting at unreachable high locations will protect their nests and youngs 🐣from danger🐍, except from falling off. They usually nest at 50-200 m high on cliffs or simply outside your window (✨do not hesitate to share pictures with us here in the comment section if you are a lucky roommate✨). But when nesting at a high position, they need to watch out for youngs falling off from home⚠️; household safety is important! Therefore, the parents will keep their child away from the edge to stay safe, while the chicks will stick with each other to stay warm 🧡and remain still until their parents are back home.

The peregrine falcons not only make use of height for protecting their babies, they also rely on height to get their meals. The birds will perch high, observe and focus on their prey👁️, which are usually pigeons🐦 in Hong Kong. The falcon will then dive to grab their target with their deadly claws at over 300 kph (flying over one football field ⚽️per second). Their hunting method is stooping, yet they dive with their head first instead of feet like the other raptors🦅. The streamlined body of peregrine falcons is designed for stooping which inspired the design of some aircraft like the American stealth bomber, Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit. The tradeoff, however, of this specific body design for the peregrine falcon is a lesser ability in gliding such as observed in other raptors like hawks and eagles.

Apart from stooping, they also trick their prey, hunting more effectively🧠. The falcon will lock on to their target and follow the bird; yet they will maintain some distance from the naive prey. The falcon faints to carry on “other businesses”, even flying away to avoid raising suspicion in its target. The falcon will then fly a route like an arc🏹, and when it reaches the furthest distance from the pigeon, it will suddenly assault the bird with high speed. This hunting method will help them lessen the alertness of their prey, and when finally the prey notices the falcon is approaching them at high speed, it is often too late to escape🏃.

Peregrine falcons are considered as top predators🥇 in their natural habitat, as well as in the urban ecosystems they live in, where they have few or no predators. In short, they are at the top of their food chain. Despite their relatively small size, they play an important role by effectively controlling the population of smaller birds like pigeons that fall into their diet. In the case of the peregrine falcon, as for many other raptors, we should welcome them as their ecology helps balance pigeons and other bird or mammal populations🐭; thus limiting some of the damages and disease🦠spread that could be observed if those were out of control.