Discover the fascinating world of peregrine falcons and modern falconry

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to go with a Dutch friend Marten to visit a Peregrine falcon (Faucon pèlerin) nest site that he had just discovered; this was a historical site used in the past but was considered by other local experts as not being active this year. 

Nevertheless, he had visited the cliff face a few kilometres from his home, travelling, as he always does, by bicycle, and had found these magnificent birds there – and nesting.

So we returned a few days after his visit, and to our delight we found four peregrines perching on the cliff face. Slightly bedraggled. It was raining, so they, like many raptors, were sitting it out and waiting until the wet had passed, occasionally shaking off a veil of droplets, only flying if absolutely necessary. 

We, standing 100 metres away, were not enough to disturb them, and with their superb eyesight (it is said to be eight times more powerful than a good-sighted human's) they would have seen us. These are a species that easily breeds in cities nowadays, often on cathedral spires in nest boxes that have been specially constructed for them. There are plenty of prey species in towns. I was once asked to fit a nesting box in the ramparts of the Cité de Carcassonne to aid in scaring away the pigeons.

Four wild peregrines within a few dozen metres of each other meant two adults and two recently fledged chicks, who were indeed still occasionally uttering begging calls for food. At this age the young birds have not yet learnt the skills to hunt for themselves; this will take several weeks, during which time the parents will provide for them. Diving (stooping) from height onto a passing pigeon at up to 200 kilometres an hour, grabbing it from the air or turning upside down and raking your talons across the prey's body from below, takes a lot of practice...

Above is a wonderful photo taken by Marten on another occasion. To get a photo like this (with a small camera) he would have had to crawl very quietly through the undergrowth without disturbing the birds; not easy to do. Recently fledged, they still show signs of their downy chick feathers, called duvet in French, and the size of their pupils are indicative of the extremely powerful eyesight that they use to such effect. 

An adult peregrine has very different markings, and the bird below, which is possibly a female because of its apparent bulk, is nearly a third larger than a male, and this leads to the males being called a 'tiercel'. The difference in size can be easily seen in the photo below.

Ironically enough, as I was driving over to pick up Marten I listened to a programme on the radio about modern day falcon breeding. This is a commercial business that would have had its origins in the ancient sport of falconry. Relatively modern-day literature classics about training birds for the purposes of hunting are T.H. White's The Goshawk, and Helen Macdonald's best-seller H is for Hawk, also about training a goshawk. Both are well worth reading, although White's book is an example of how not to do it as he modelled his method on medieval practices, and no modern falconer would dream of doing it like that these days.

However, listening to the programme I learnt that contemporary breeding has taken on another form which is, to me, disturbing.

Falconry has been a tradition practised in the Middle East for centuries and still retains cultural significance to this day. However, because of conservation concerns the favoured prey of the Houbara bustard (Outarde houbara) has become rare and is now protected.

Wealthy Arabian falconers have moved from hunting to racing their birds, with bets placed on the winner, often over a course of 400 metres. The Peregrine falcon is the fastest animal on the planet, and the northern British born birds are considered to be the best in the world. Perhaps this is because the relatively harsh climate produced a sturdy bird, and that the bloodlines have remained pure over the centuries. 

In the 20th century no doubt some chicks were still stolen from wild bird's nests, but this practice has been outlawed by legislation. Nowadays the wildlife trade is licensed, and prosecutions are only brought to the courts if malpractice can be proven. 

The evolution of falcon breeding

During the 1970's it was still thought that birds being sold on for falconry were being stolen from the wild, until the breeders produced a hybrid that would never be possible in the natural world, and one that has since become the preferred species for falcon racing. It comes from crossing a Scandinavian bird, the gyrfalcon (Faucon gerfaut), with a peregrine. This combines the speed of the peregrine with the strength of the gyr, leading to a race winning bird.

To achieve this cross the males are imprinted onto their handlers, that is to say, using the instinct that leads them to believe a human being is their mother – or mate. This was a behaviour first studied in depth by Konrad Lorenz, sometimes known as the forefather of ethology, the science of animal behaviour.

Lorenz discovered that newly hatched chicks accept the first living being they see as their mother, and this imprint lasts into adult life. When the males can be encouraged to mate with what is called a 'copulation hat', a soft indented bonnet developed in the 1970's to help with the highly endangered wild population. It looks a little like a domed honeycomb made out of silicon. After mating the tiny amount of semen is collected and used to impregnate the (also imprinted) females. 

There follows a long process of collecting the eggs and incubating them, feeding the chicks produced, helping them to fledge. By August they are flying and are soon ready to be sold to the Middle East, valued at about £3,000 each. Flown in dedicated aircraft, they might be sold in batches of say 30 to a falconry team; so, it can be seen that serious amounts of money are involved. 

Vast amounts of money can be won by the winning bird, too; there is a prize of 9.6 million dollars for the King's sword in Dubai, and it is said that a winning bird was sold on for nearly half a million dollars so that it could continue to win prizes – and prestige – throughout its life, on average 12 years. 

So, this is the strange world of most modern falcon breeding; it has become all about money. No doubt there are worse abuses of animals in general and birds in particular but all this seems so far away from the magnificent peregrines that can be fairly easily seen with a little luck as they go about their wild lives. 

I see them fairly often, most easily near the nesting sites, but many western cities now have nesting pairs, with remote cameras installed so that you observe the whole process of breeding and rearing the chicks. I have seen a stoop from height near a local mountain and will never forget the extraordinary speed generated as this distant dot plunged downwards in pursuit of a prey, and also the sound of the rushing through the air as one dived near to me.