{"id":49472,"date":"2017-11-18T05:33:47","date_gmt":"2017-11-18T12:33:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=49472"},"modified":"2024-11-08T06:50:53","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T12:50:53","slug":"side-by-side-prairie-and-peregrine-falcon-comparison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/11\/18\/side-by-side-prairie-and-peregrine-falcon-comparison\/","title":{"rendered":"Side By Side Prairie and Peregrine Falcon Comparison"},"content":{"rendered":"

I participate in several bird identification groups on Facebook where people share photos and\/or descriptions of the birds they see and photograph where they aren’t sure of the identity and ask for help with ID’s.<\/p>\n

Quite often I see people struggle with Prairie and Peregrine Falcon identification where they might believe they saw or photographed a Prairie Falcon and they really saw a Peregrine Falcon or vice versa so I thought I’d do a side by side comparison of these two species of falcons.<\/p>\n

\"PrairiePrairie and Peregrine Falcon Comparison – Composite image
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

I photographed the Prairie Falcon on January 13, 2017 in Box Elder County, Utah and the Peregrine Falcon on January 27, 2017 from the causeway to Antelope Island State Park in Davis County, Utah.<\/p>\n

For my purposes here I like that both of these falcons have snowy backgrounds because all of the the focus is on the birds and that makes them stand out for identification.<\/p>\n

There isn’t much of a size difference between the two species, the wings of Peregrine Falcons are just a bit longer than those of Prairie Falcons, both of these falcon species have similar shapes as well so going by shape alone isn’t always helpful in identifying them for novice birders and beginning bird photographers.<\/p>\n

Adult Prairie Falcons<\/span><\/a> are browner than Peregrine Falcons<\/span><\/a> and in flight they can show that they have dark “arm pits” that the Peregrines do not have.<\/p>\n

But seeing that isn’t always easy because of how fast these falcons fly and lighting conditions or distance might make seeing that even harder.<\/p>\n

Usually what isn’t hard to see in the field are the heads of these two falcon species and there are key identification features there that can make it easier to tell the two species apart.<\/p>\n