Falcon The Hunter

by Nava Thompson

Title

Falcon The Hunter

Artist

Nava Thompson

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

A photo taken by Nava Thompson of a Falcon hunting from a tree in NW Arkansas.................................Falcons are roughly divisible into three or four groups. The first contains the kestrels (probably excepting the American Kestrel);,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, usually small and stocky falcons of mainly brown upperside color and sometimes sexually dimorphic; three African species that are generally grey in color stand apart from the typical members of this group. Kestrels feed chiefly on terrestrial vertebrates and invertebrates of appropriate size, such as rodents, reptiles, or insects...........................................The second group contains slightly larger (on average) and more elegant species, the hobbies and relatives. These birds are characterized by considerable amounts of dark slate-grey in their plumage; the malar area is nearly always black. They feed mainly on smaller birds...........................Third are the Peregrine Falcon and its relatives: variably sized powerful birds that also have a black malar area (except some very light color morphs), and often a black cap as well. Otherwise, they are somewhat intermediate between the other groups, being chiefly medium grey with some lighter or brownish colors on the upper side. They are, on average, more delicately patterned than the hobbies and, if the hierofalcons are excluded (see below), this group typically contains species with horizontal barring on the underside. As opposed to the other groups, where tail color varies much in general but little according to evolutionary relatedness,[note 1] the tails of the large falcons are quite uniformly dark grey with rather inconspicuous black banding and small white tips, though this is probably plesiomorphic. These large Falco feed on mid-sized birds and terrestrial vertebrates............................Very similar to these, and sometimes included therein, are the four or so species of hierofalcons (literally, "hawk-falcons"). They represent taxa with, usually, more phaeomelanins, which impart reddish or brown colors, and generally more strongly patterned plumage reminiscent of hawks. Notably, their undersides have a lengthwise pattern of blotches, lines or arrowhead marks. While these three or four groups, loosely circumscribed, are an informal arrangement, they probably contain several distinct clades in their entirety. A study of mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data of some kestrels........ identified a clade containing the Common Kestrel and related "malar-striped" species, to the exclusion of such taxa as the Greater Kestrel (which lacks a malar stripe), the Lesser Kestrel (which is very similar to the Common but also has no malar stripe), and the American Kestrel. The latter species has a malar stripe, but its color pattern�apart from the brownish back�and notably also the black feathers behind the ear, which never occur in the true kestrels, are more reminiscent of some hobbies. The malar-striped kestrels apparently split from their relatives in the Gelasian, roughly 2.5-2 mya, and are apparently of tropical East African origin. The entire "true kestrel" group�excluding the American species�is probably a distinct and quite young clade, as also suggested by their numerous apomorphies.......................................Most members of the genus Falco show a tooth on the upper mandibleOther studies have confirmed that the hierofalcons are a monophyletic group�and, incidentally, that hybridization is quite frequent at least in the larger falcon species. Initial studies of mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data suggested that the hierofalcons are basal among living falcons.

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August 4th, 2014

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