![]() ![]() ![]() Some species, mostly in the genus Falco, are fully migratory, with some species summering in Eurasia and wintering entirely in Africa, other species may be partly migratory. Most habitat types are occupied, from tundra to rainforest and deserts, although they are generally more birds of open country and even forest species tend to prefer broken forest and forest edges. Other species have more restricted distributions, particularly island endemics like the Mauritius kestrel. Some species have exceptionally wide ranges, particularly the cosmopolitan peregrine falcon, which ranges from Greenland to Fiji and has the widest natural breeding distribution of any bird. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution across the world, absent only from the densest forest of central Africa, some remote oceanic islands, the high Arctic and Antarctica. There is little difference in the plumage of males and females, although a few species have some sexual dimorphism in boldness of plumage. The plumage is usually composed of browns, whites, chestnut, black and grey, often with barring of patterning. They have strongly hooked bills, sharply curved talons and excellent eyesight. ![]() The family is divided into three subfamilies: Herpetotherinae, which includes the laughing falcon and forest falcons Polyborinae, which includes the spot-winged falconet and the caracaras and Falconinae, the falcons and kestrels ( Falco) and falconets ( Microhierax).įalcons and caracaras are small to medium-sized birds of prey, ranging in size from the black-thighed falconet, which can weigh as little as 35 grams (1.2 oz), to the gyrfalcon, which can weigh as much as 1,735 grams (61.2 oz). The falcons and caracaras are around 65 species of diurnal birds of prey that make up the family Falconidae (representing all extant species in the order Falconiformes). ![]()
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