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50 free Peregrine Falcon trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The peregrine falcon is the fastest animal alive and the most widespread raptor on the planet, and this quiz covers both claims in detail: the recorded 389 km/h stoop, the bony nostril tubercles and third eyelids that make such dives survivable, the clenched-foot strike, the notched beak that severs a spine, and the roughly one-fifth of all bird species that end up on the menu somewhere in the world. It also follows the peregrine through human history: 3,000 years of falconry, medieval rankings that placed it just below the gyrfalcon, the Second World War intercepting of homing pigeons, the DDT crash and the hacking programme that got it off the US endangered list in 1999, the return to cathedral ledges and skyscrapers, Ra's falcon head, Chicago's city bird, the Idaho quarter, J. A. Baker's classic book and the Suzuki motorbike that borrowed its Japanese name. Easy questions ask what it eats and where it nests; hard ones want flicker-fusion rates, subspecies counts and Latin roots. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's article on the peregrine falcon, and each question carries the sentence that supports it. Our Birds and Bald Eagle quizzes go wider.
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Q 01The peregrine falcon is famous above all for what?
Its speed
A crow-sized bird with a blue-grey back and black head, it hunts almost nothing but other birds.
Q 02Which sex of peregrine falcon is larger?
The female
That is typical of bird-eating raptors; a female weighing half as much again as her mate is not unusual.
Q 03What is the peregrine's historical North American nickname?
Duck hawk
In Australia it was the 'black-cheeked falcon'; the American subspecies name anatum literally means 'duck peregrine'.
Q 04The peregrine is entirely absent from which major ice-free landmass?
New Zealand
Everywhere else bar the poles, the highest mountains and most rainforests has them, making it the world's most widespread raptor.
Q 05Both the English and scientific names of the peregrine mean what?
Wandering falcon
Peregrinus is Latin for 'one from abroad', probably because young birds were caught while travelling rather than taken from hard-to-reach nests.
Q 06How many peregrine subspecies does the IOC World Bird List accept?
18
The Handbook of the Birds of the World makes it 19 by counting the Barbary falcon as two subspecies rather than a separate species.
Q 07Which pesticide was chiefly responsible for the peregrine's collapse in the mid-20th century?
DDT
It built up in the birds' fat, thinned their eggshells and stopped eggs surviving to hatch; the eastern US population vanished entirely.
Q 08The peregrine's beak is notched near the tip so that it can do what?
Sever the spinal column of prey
The 'tooth' lets falcons finish prey at the neck; hawks and eagles rely on their feet instead.
Q 09A 2021 study concluded the black malar stripe under a peregrine's eye serves to do what?
Reduce glare
The stripe is bigger in sunnier parts of the world, working like a footballer's eye black.
Q 10Who first described Falco peregrinus under its current name, in 1771?
Marmaduke Tunstall
The Latin phrase itself is older, used by Albertus Magnus in 1225.
Q 11The Latin 'falco' is related to falx, meaning what?
Sickle
It describes the silhouette of the long, pointed wings in flight.
Q 12Which subspecies is nicknamed the 'Maltese falcon'?
F. p. brookei
The Mediterranean race ranges from Iberia to the Caucasus, is non-migratory and usually has a rusty wash below.
Q 13What is the peregrine's characteristic high-speed hunting dive called?
A stoop
It climbs high, folds its wings and tail, and hits one wing of its prey so as not to hurt itself on impact.
Q 14Small bony tubercles on the peregrine's nostrils are thought to help it do what during a dive?
Q 21In cities, the rock dove or feral pigeon makes up what share of a peregrine's diet?
80% or more
Feral pigeons are the only land bird with a wider range than the peregrine, and only because people carried them everywhere.
Q 22How does a peregrine usually kill or stun its prey?
Strikes it with a clenched foot in mid-air
It then turns to catch the falling bird; anything too heavy to carry is dropped and eaten on the ground.
Q 23Which mammals are the peregrine's most common night-time prey?
Bats
City lighting lets peregrines hunt after dark, especially migrating birds and bats of the genera Eptesicus, Myotis and Pipistrellus.
Breathe by deflecting the airflow
Without them, the air pressure of a 300 km/h stoop might damage the lungs.
Q 15Peregrines protect their eyes during a dive using what?
Nictitating membranes
The 'third eyelids' spread tears and sweep away debris while the bird keeps sight of its target.
Q 16What is the peregrine's flicker fusion frequency, a measure of how fast its eyes process images?
129 Hz
That is very fast for a bird its size and much faster than any mammal, which is what you need when the world is rushing past at 300 km/h.
Q 17What is the longest known lifespan of a wild peregrine?
Just under 20 years
Most never get close: 59 to 70% die in their first year, though adult mortality drops to a quarter or a third a year.
Q 18In 2005 Ken Franklin recorded a peregrine stooping at what top speed?
389 km/h (242 mph)
Sceptics note that radar has never confirmed such figures, the fastest reliably measured being 184 km/h.
Q 19A study of an 'ideal falcon' put the theoretical speed limit for a low-altitude dive at what?
400 km/h
At high altitude, thinner air pushes the ceiling to 625 km/h.
Q 20Roughly what fraction of the world's bird species are preyed on by peregrines somewhere?
A fifth
That is 1,500 to 2,000 species, from 3-gram hummingbirds to 3-kilogram sandhill cranes.
Q 24Where does a peregrine normally nest?
In a scrape on a cliff edge
The hen scrapes a shallow hollow in soil or gravel; tall buildings and bridges now serve the same purpose.
Q 25How many eggs does a peregrine usually lay?
Three to four
They are white to buff with red-brown markings and hatch after 29 to 33 days, mostly incubated by the hen.
Q 26Peregrines defending their nests have killed raptors as large as which birds?
Golden and bald eagles
One parent even killed a snowy owl that had taken its fledgling, ambushing it in a full stoop.
Q 27The parents' hunting territory can extend how far from the nest?
19 to 24 km
That is a radius of 12 to 15 miles, which is why a single pair can patrol a whole city.
Q 28For roughly how long has the peregrine been used in falconry?
More than 3,000 years
It began with nomads in central Asia; the bird's even temper makes it one of the easier falcons to train.
Q 29In falconry, the peregrine's habit of circling above the falconer until game is flushed is called what?
Waiting on
It then delivers the high-speed stoop that falconers prize, striking with a clenched talon like a fist.
Q 30During World War II, peregrines were used to intercept what?
Homing pigeons
Trained falcons were set on message-carrying pigeons; today captive breeding supplies most falconry birds.