Falcons

The falconry as sport prospered in both East and West, the master of falconers used to be considered one of the top leaders in his community, before the recession of this sport as a result of the invention and spread of firearms, break of wars and scarcity of quarries, therefore this sport became a royal sport confined to kings and dignitaries.

Falcons Body

Falcon is classified among the daytime hunting birds, which has a streamlined body, covered with dense fine feather, which helps him in quibbling all kinds and hardest climatic conditions. It has strong integrated muscles and relatively long wings.

Falcon length ranges between 15 centimeters to 49 centimeters, while its wings ranges between 100 centimeters to 110 centimeters. While its weight ranges between 100 gram, (for smallest kestrels) up to 2 kilograms (for largest arctic falcons). Falcon is distinguished for its speedy and brisk fly. The average of its speed is between 100-40 km/hr and reaches 320 kilograms per hour upon assault. The height of its fly reaches up to 1000 meter.

Falcon is a skillful hunter which hunts by using two methods: either by pouncing upon and giving a quick hit, or by chasing its prey in the air and catching it. Falcon lives up to 20 years. When it advances in age, it becomes senile, epileptic and blind.

Head and neck

Head and neck front are considered one of the important features for distinguishing the various kinds of falcons. Saker Falcon, for example, is distinguished for its large head, whereas Peregrine Falcon has kind of a rectangular head. The eyes, ears and beaks constitute the falcon’s recognition power. Falcons can turn swiftly their head in all directions. Despite the fact that hearing plays a secondary role in falcon's life compared to sight, the vocal expression could be a critical issue which influences mating and self-defense activities. Falcon's hearing is close to human being’s hearing, however it can recognize sounds more quickly. Falcons have large but short beaks compared to the head size. Their beaks are known for their unique «cutter» located at the beak top which called «Prominent tooth», used by falcons for breaking the prey neck. Against this tooth, there is a notch located on the lower edge.

The Eye

Falcons have sharp vision that is beyond any other creatures. Falcon’s eyes occupy a space in their head which is 15 times larger than of a human being. Thus, falcons can observe its prey from a long distance, up to 2.5 km. This is due to the large size of the eyes and the thickness of its eyes retinas, which is double than a man’s eyes.

Falcons possess a third eyelid (nictitating membrane) which periodically flashes across the surface of the eye to î lubricate the cornea. In raptors the nictitating membrane is largely transparent and can serve the dual purpose of acting as «goggles» during extremely fast flight.