Peregrine Falcon This image courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Photographer: unknown

Original artwork by Paul Millar

Description:

Adult Peregine Falcons have long, pointed wings that are about 3.1 centimetres long. The female is slightly larger than the male. They are about 38 - 50 centimetres.

Their body underparts range from a dark blue to a grayish colour, and so do their backs. They have pale bluish bills and their feet, like most birds, are yellow. The top of their heads are black to their chest. Their lower breast varies from white to pink and have a bit of blackish-brown. The tail, which is about 1.5 centimetres long, is very narrow and is blue-gray and is rounded with narrow black bands. Young Peregine Falcons usually are brownish on the top of their body and have a brownish throat. The total length of this falcon is about 4.6 centimetres.

Environment:

The Peregine falcon lives in all different kinds of habitats. Peregine Falcon nests are probably found mostly on cliffs and pinnacles. If the falcon has built its nest in the city, it will probably be a man-made structure that it is nesting in, like on a bridge, tower, multi-story building, and sometimes other unusual places.

Problems:

You can probably guess what the main predator of the Peregine falcon is. Because it is such a large animal not many, if any other animals try to eat or kill it. The Peregrine Falcon eats fish and other things and man destroys it by destroying its home.

Man is responsible for all of the world's pollution. When farmers put chemicals on their plants, the rain water washes it into rivers and lakes. The fish that are in the rivers and lakes get the chemicals into their systems. When the falcon eats the fish, it gets the chemicals into its system. Then when the female lays eggs, she sits on them to keep them warm. But the eggs are too soft and break. Fortunately for the Peregine Falcon, these chemicals have been banned from most of the world.

Another reason that the Peregine Falcon is endangered is because its losing its habitat. When humans destroy their homes. The Peregrine Falcon has also been severely affected by chemical pesticides. The pesticides interfered with reproduction, and the birds became extinct as breeding birds in some parts of the world.

Solutions:

People are starting to help the Peregine falcons in a few ways. One thing that has helped their comeback is the banning of some of the bad chemicals that are harming them. Now there are hardly any problems with the falcon's eggs. Another way that people have helped them is by putting some of the birds in captivity, so they are safe while they are hatching their eggs, and their babies are safe after they have hatched.

With the prohibition of certain pesticides and the help of a highly successful captive breeding program, Peregrine Falcons were able to recover and adapt to life in urban areas, where they nest on buildings and bridges, feeding mostly on pigeons and other birds.

Summary:

There wasn't much at all that I knew about the Peregrine Falcon, I didn't even know that I had already seen them before. I didn't know that these animals that I had seen up the coast were even endangered. Before I started my research I only had a brief idea of what one looked like. My family and I had seen a large group of them up the coast around the Queensland and the NSW border. Although we couldn't get up close to look at them. I didn't know what they were called so I wanted to find out and learn more about them.

Just by looking at this bird (the Peregrine Falcon) in one of my encyclopedias made me want to study it for my endangered species assignment. I wanted to do my assignment on a bird, because I have always liked these animals, especially eagles and falcons. Another reason I was also going to find is what people like me could do to save this animal from extinction. I wanted to find out why this bird is endangered and what other people could do to prevent it from extinction.

I have learnt a lot of things doing this assignment, I learnt some great facts about the Peregrine Falcon. The main thing I learned is that if any animal becomes endangered, it may take it decades to recover enough to get back to not being endangered. I have also noticed that animals that are not as well known do not get as much attention and may be headed for extinction in the near future. I learnt about some of the actions that are being taken to stop the Peregrine Falcon from becoming extinct. I also learnt about why the Peregrine Falcon is endangered and what it eats, its description and where abouts it lives.

The Peregine falcon is just one of thousands of animals in the world that are endangered or threatened. I think people should really care about animals like the Peregine Falcon, they should do something to protect it and other animals that they care about. Everyone should help do something to protect endangered animals and even animals that aren't endangered. We need to keep our animals safe in their natural habitat. We shouldn't have to start up breeding programs and things because they shouldn't become endangered in the first place. I hope that the Peregrine Falcon does not become extinct and it is not going to be endangered in the future.

References:

I got a lot of information from many different places. I got some information from Encarta '95 on the computer. It gave me information such as the Peregine Falcon's classified name, its size, what it looks like, and a great deal of other information. Another place I got information from was some library books that I checked out from the local library. I didn't really have any problems when I was doing my research because the information off the computer was very good. It had mainly just the information that I needed for this assignment.

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