Gyrfalcon

Gyrfalcon, white form

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Gyrfalcon, gray form, juvenile.

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1. Description
2. Sound
3. Conservation Status
4. Other Names
5. Cool Facts
6. Full detailed species account

The largest falcon in the world, the Gyrfalcon breeds in arctic and subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere. It preys mostly on large birds, pursuing them in breathtakingly fast and powerful flight.

Description

• Large falcon.
• Broad-chested appearance.
• May range from nearly pure white to dark gray to black, with variable barring and streaking; most are gray.
• Faint mustache mark on face.
• Long, broad, pointed wings.
• Long, barred tail.

• Size: 48-64 cm (19-25 in)
• Wingspan: 123 cm (48 in)
• Weight: 800-2100 g (28.24-74.13 ounces)

Sex Differences

Sexes similar; female larger.

Sound

Alarm call is a guttural "kak, kak, kak." Contact call, given during foraging and food transfer, is a sharp "chup..chup?chup."

Conservation Status

No evidence of long-term population changes in North America. Commercial markets in falconry may pose a threat in Scandinavia and Russia.

Other Names

Faucon gerfaut (French)
Halcón gerifalte (Spanish)

Cool Facts

• The Gyrfalcon eats mostly ptarmigan, but many other prey species have been recorded, including fulmars, gulls, jaegers, ducks, geese, Rough-legged Hawk, Short-eared Owl, sparrows, buntings, and redpolls.

• The female Gyrfalcon regularly stores prey during the breeding season, generally within 100 meters (328 feet) of the nest. Little is known of food-caching outside the breeding season; in one case, a Gyrfalcon was seen retrieving a frozen ptarmigan and chipping off pieces of meat to eat, in mid-winter in the Aleutian Islands.

• Gyrfalcon is pronounced as "JER-falcon." The name probably evolved from Old Norse, but linguists do not completely agree on the specific origin of the word.

• The Gyrfalcon sometimes bathes in runoff water of still-frozen rivers.

Sources used to construct this page:

Clum, N. J., and T. J. Cade. 1994. Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus). In The Birds of North America, No. 114 (A. Poole and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, D.C.: The American Ornithologists' Union.