Midwest Peregrine Falcons

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About Midwest Peregrine Falcons

This group is designed to share photos of wild Peregrine Falcons living in midwestern North America.

Identification: Peregrine Falcons are about the size of an American Crow, with slim builds and long, thin wings. Male and females look very similar, though females tend to be larger.

Adult peregrines have dark grayish backs and white or light breasts with speckling or barring. The peregrine's most distinctive feature is the dark cap of feathers on its head and neck with u-shaped sideburns on either side of the face. The peregrine's feet, legs, eyerings and most of its beak are a very intense yellow. The eyes are dark brown to black. Juveniles appear far more brown in color with more intense speckles or bars on the breast. As well, the juveniles feet, legs, eyerings and beak are a paler yellow.

The bird most often mistaken for a peregrine is a Cooper's Hawk. They are very similar in size and both use birds as a primary prey source. The most distinctive difference, at least in my opinion, is the eye color. Cooper's Hawks have a very intense red-orange iris, more yellowish in immature birds, where peregrine's have a very dark-brown iris. Cooper's Hawks will also perch near backyard bird feeders looking for prey. Peregrines favor high spots and will very rarely be seen perching that low to the ground. So, if it's in your backyard, it's probably a beautiful Cooper's Hawk!

Leg Bands: Most peregrine's in the midwest will have legbands on both legs. One legband, generally on the right leg, is a USFW band and unless you are holding it in your hand, you'll be hard-pressed to read the numbers. The other band, generally on the left leg, has much bigger numbers. Midwestern (US and Canada) birds will have black and green (new midwest color scheme), black and red (old midwest color scheme) or solid black (Canadian color scheme) bands.



If you are lucky, you will see the two letters and/or numbers on the band clearly enough to read. One of both may be laying on their side. If you are able to get these numbers in your photo, the individual's identity can be determined!

Researchers use these bands to track the birds and love to get confirmed sightings. So, even if you think a photo isn't fantastic, if the legband is even semi-readable, go ahead and post it! Maybe we can make out something.

Rules: Because this is a pretty specialized group, unfortunately, there are rules. Please try to follow them so that we can maintain the integrity of the pool.

1. Only post pictures of Peregrine Falcons. If a misidentified bird is posted, the administrator reserves the right to delete the picture from the pool (and hopefully help the poster correctly identify their raptor!)

2. Only post pictures of wild Peregrine Falcons (please no zoo, falconry pictures, etc...).

3. Only post pictures that were taken in the following US/Canada locations: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Manitoba and Ontario.

4. Please make sure that the correct date and location is noted somewhere. If we get a positive ID from the legbands, we need to log the date and time and we want that information to be as accurate as possible. Feel absolutely free to post older pictures, just make sure you give the date!

INFORMATION FOR THE CHICAGO AREA ONLY: If you find a peregrine on the ground, Mary Hennen has put up some emergency contact numbers for the Chicago region. You can find some good information and the numbers HERE.

For those of you not from the Chicago region, the information on what to do when you find a downed peregrine is still valuable, even if the numbers are not. It is highly probable your own area has monitors. My suggestion would be to try wildlife rescue organizations or rehabbers, Animal Control and/or any zoo or natural history museum type place in the area.