A peregrine falcon often watches for prey from a high perch, such as a cliff or a tall tree. Then it hunts by diving down from high above. Reports say a peregrine falcon diving after prey can reach more than 200 miles an hour. It eats mostly other birds, and in cities it eats pigeons. A peregrine has very sharp eyesight and strong, sharp talons on its feet. People have trained peregrine falcons for falconry for many centuries.

A peregrine falcon weighs at most about 1.5 kilograms, or 3.5 pounds. Its wings spread about 3.5 feet from tip to tip. Female peregrine falcons are bigger than males. Peregrine falcons like open country. They nest on high cliffs, and in cities they use tall buildings and bridges.

A peregrine falcon does not build a nest. It lays its eggs in a scrape, a small dip in the soil or gravel of a ledge. It lays two to five eggs at a time. A male brings food to the female and to the young at the nest. Young peregrine falcons are ready to fly about five to six weeks after they hatch. Some nest sites are used again and again for many years.

In the middle of the 1900s, the pesticide DDT made peregrine falcon eggshells thin, and the eggs broke while the parents sat on them. The United States banned the use of DDT in 1972. Biologists raised thousands of young peregrine falcons in captivity and released them into the wild. In 1999 the peregrine falcon was taken off the United States list of endangered species, after its numbers had grown back. As of November 2026 the peregrine falcon is listed by the IUCN Red List as Least Concern.

Peregrine falcons live on every continent except Antarctica. Many peregrine falcons migrate, but some stay in one place all year. Peregrines that nest on Arctic tundra and winter in South America can fly more than 15,000 miles in a year.

Words to know

• perch: high seat
• scrape: small dip
• falconry: training falcons
• endangered: nearly gone
• migrate: travel seasonally