Peregrine strategy (was raptor prey)

["STEVEN MCBRIDE" <>]

In this National Geographic Channel clip of a trained falcon chasing a
weighted lure, released from a plane, they claim a measured speed of
183miles/hr(295km/h), and a later measurement of 242 miles/hr(390km/h)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3mTPEuFcWk&NR=1

Steve


-----Original Message-----
From: 
 On Behalf Of Andrew Taylor
Sent: Monday, 16 June 2008 11:30 PM
To: Birding-aus
Subject: Peregrine strategy (was raptor prey)

On Sun, Jun 15, 2008 at 07:14:21PM +1000, Greg & Val Clancy wrote:
> Further from Stephen Debus:
> The absolute fastest actually measured with radar
> is just under 200 km/h (about 190, from memory) for a Peregrine, just
> over 200 for the bigger/heavier Gyrfalcon.  This is in the scientific
> literature, but not getting through (though I try!).  200 km/h is
> impressive enough without having to exaggerate.

The faster radar measurement Google Scholar turns up is 51m/s (ref
below)
which is 184km/h and the same paper cites careful non-radar measurement
of Gyrfalcon doing similar speeds.  Aerodynamic characteristics of
both falcons indicate both could achieve much higher speeds and must be
controlling their descent rate - maybe higher speeds would be dangerous
to the falcon or not advantageous to hunting.

The falcon in this BBC video must be approach this sort of velocity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnT2joxnkqY

Youtube has quite a few clips showing stoops, some with kills, e.g:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD5tcOLfRDE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2nn-q6ezuM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8eZJnbDHIg

Andrew

Hedenstr€m, A. The stoop of large falcons. Trends. Ecol. Evol.
13:383-385.
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