Endangered
Saker Falcon
Falco cherrug
The saker falcon is a large falcon species.
Appearance
It resembles a larger but browner Gyrfalcon. Saker falcons tend to have variable plumage. The saker falcon is the second fastest bird in level flight after the white-throated needletail swift (unconfirmed), capable of reaching 150 km/h (93 mph).
The saker falcon is a large hierofalcon, larger than the lanner falcon and almost as large as gyrfalcon at 45–57 cm (18–22 in) length with a wingspan of 97–126 cm (38–50 in). Males weigh between 730–990 g (26–35 oz) and females 970–1,300 g (34–46 oz).
Published measurements include mass about 875.
Range and habitat
The migratory birds to the east from Altai Mountains spend the winter in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
In Europe, ground squirrels and feral pigeons are the most common prey items. This species usually builds no nest of own, but lays its 3–6 eggs in an old stick nest in a tree that was previously used by other birds such as storks, ravens or buzzards.
It breeds from Central Europe eastwards across the Palearctic to Manchuria. It is a partial migrant, that means that some part of the population is migratory, some part is not.
In crisis
It is also the third fastest animal in the world overall after the peregrine falcon and the golden eagle, with all three species capable of executing high speed dives known as "stooping", approaching 300 km/h (190 mph). BirdLife International categorises this bird as endangered, due to a rapid population decline, particularly on the central Asian breeding grounds. The population was estimated to be between 7,200 and 8,800 mature individuals in 2004.
A climatic niche modelling study pinpointed certain remote areas for targeted population surveys. In contrast, a strongly protected and relatively abundant population persists in Hungary.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Saker Falcon is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Saker falcon, Wikidata item Q165974. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
