When some birds rush up against air in flight, they experience drag due to the wind pulling on their loose feathers or broad wings. Peregrine falcons have especially powerful flight muscles that power their wings to dizzying speeds.Īttached to those large flight muscles is another bonus: pointed wings with slim, stiff, unslotted feathers, which create the streamlined silhouette of a peregrine's body. As the place of attachment for major flight muscles, it determines the bird's flying ability. A bird's keel is located at its breastbone, or sternum. What allows a peregrine to fly so much faster than, say, a pigeon? It all boils down to anatomy.Īs far as peregrine falcon speed is concerned, a major advantage is the size of its keel. Thanks to some fast action and the Endangered Species Act, the peregrines are speeding back to health and their numbers now stand at about 2,000 to 3,000 breeding pairs. By 1975, only 324 known nesting pairs, or mating couples, were left. Beginning in the 1940s and lasting through the early '70s, the entire American peregrine falcon population experienced drastic declines due to the widespread use of this deadly pesticide, which caused their eggshells to weaken and break and led baby peregrine falcons to die before hatching. They also have black stripes set against their whitish faces, which resemble mustaches.Īs fast as they are, peregrine falcons could barely outrun (or outfly) the dangers of Dichloro-diphenyl-trichlorethane ( DDT). Although it may be difficult to spot one sitting still, you can identify them by their bluish-gray backs and similarly colored long, pointed wings, as well as the white and black spots on their bellies. With their powerful chest muscles, long wingspan and streamlined shape, peregrine falcons are truly built for speed - NASCAR couldn't have designed them any better.įound on every continent except Antarctica, peregrine falcons are the most widespread bird in the world, absent only on isolated islands and in high mountains, expansive deserts and jungles.

But if they were to look up at the sky, they'd find an aerial acrobat that can achieve speeds more than three times as fast. When many people are asked to name the world's fastest animal, they immediately think of the cheetah.

Peregrine falcon speed not diving