Peregrine Falcon

Wow, this photo goes back a few years! I finally got it to upload on the third attempt! It was taken with my very first digital camera, an Olympus C750UZ, on 23 July 2007, during a visit to the Coaldale Bird Of Prey Centre, near Lethbridge, Southern Alberta. It is very rarely that I see a Peregrine Falcon in the wild and they are usually too distant to get a photo.

"The Peregrine is renowned for its speed, reaching over 322 km/h (200 mph) during its characteristic hunting stoop (high speed dive), making it the fastest member of the animal kingdom. According to a National Geographic TV programme, the highest measured speed of a Peregrine Falcon is 389 km/h (242 mph).

While its diet consists almost exclusively of medium-sized birds, the Peregrine will occasionally hunt small mammals, small reptiles, or even insects. Reaching sexual maturity at one year, it mates for life and nests in a scrape, normally on cliff edges or, in recent times, on tall human-made structures.] The Peregrine Falcon became an endangered species in many areas because of the widespread use of certain pesticides, especially DDT. Since the ban on DDT from the early 1970s, populations have recovered, supported by large-scale protection of nesting places and releases to the wild." From Wikipedia.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrine_Falcon

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/peregrine_falcon/id