Is guided falling really “flying” though? May be being a bit pedantic, but there are probably other animals that could do this (if only once…).
What amazes me is their amazing anatomy that allows them to basically “punch” their prey doing a dive, and not be horribly crippled by the forces. Now that’s cool.
While on vacation in Canada, we happened upon a raptor rehab that had a falcon show. To my naive surprise, the tour showed that every bird was kept in a separate cage. If I remember correctly, they could not even see each other. It was explained that they would simply fight to the death, or attempt to, given the smallest opportunity.
DH used to live in Boston, and across from their apartment building, a pair of peregrines had taken up residence on an building ledge. The falcons would frequently take out pigeons in midair. The family also received an annoying green parrot as a gift; DH offered $300 to have someone toss the parrot out the window. There was a betting pool on how many floors down it would flutter before one of the falcons nabbed it.
quite.
you answered yourself.
Well, they can, but it is contra-indicated in the operations manual. Plays hell on the jet turbines.
So what I’m getting from this is that Vulcans (and Romulans) may be phenogenically closer to peregrine falcons than humans.
I meant weapons-wise… but I get ya!
Thx! That certainly protects the eyes, but I imagine that the shape of its eyeballs should be distorted due to dynamic pressure as it dives. Gonna look into this!
Okay. Here we go:
“The cornea in peregrine falcons is firmly attached to the sclerotic ring [a bone] that keeps the bird’s eye from changing shape in a dive. Without it, their eye shape would change, their vision would be distorted, and they would not know exactly where their prey – or the ground – was during a dive, a mistake they cannot afford to make.”
IIRC, head down dive speeds of human skydivers top out well under 200 mph at normal altitudes. Something the size of a falcon would not reach anything like that speed in a controlled fall even if very aerodynamic. Gravity obviously helps a lot but they are legitimately flying downward.
They are also able to hold open a time loop.
They do not so much fly as plommet.
And peregrine falcons are phylogenically closer to budgies than to hawks and eagles.
When doing some research on pilgrimage, I discovered the Peregrine and Pilgrim come from the same root word.
But of course.
I love those beautyfull creatures.
Here in Frankfurt they breed for more than a decade on top of the Commerzbank tower, the tallest skyscraper of the city. I once saw one of them take out a pidgeon mid air.
Absolutely amazing!
There has been a nesting pair raising chicks at my local library every year for over 15 years. When one of the locals would feed pigeons right under the nesting ledge passers by sometimes got more of a show than anticipated.
The falcon cam is live from March-June, and has archived videos.
Had a dead falcon in my front yard one morning. While it was sad to see the poor dead thing laying there, it was cool to see one up close. As far as birds go, the thing was pretty damn big.
I guess my point is that they’re not “flying” in that they’re not providing thrust. It really is gravity dependent speed with an extremely streamlined form allowing a very high terminal velocity.
I mean, there are other really streamlined animals (aquatic species) that I could probably chuck out of a plane and get similar speeds. Maybe what makes it “flying” is that it’s guided and can be recovered from.
I guess a vulture can be said to be “flying” even if it’s not really providing thrust as much as riding thermals in a situation where their air resistance equally matches their rate of fall.
Yes, and champion competitive speed divers in sleek aerodynamic suits can hit 300mph+
At those speeds, aerodynamics really count.
And falcons are a LOT more aerodynamic than sleek-skinned humans. 
Really, though, no matter how it’s done, precision maneuvering at those speeds is flying. IMHO and all.
I almost got clipped in the head by a falcon chasing a small bird (Sparrow?). I was walking down the sidewalk along side a brick apartment building maybe 6 feet from he sidewalk when a vaguely sensed something between me and the building, like an air pressure drop or some sort of weird silence in my left ear, and just as I started to turn my head in that direction I saw a falcon fly by with it’s wing tip just inches from my ear, chasing this small bird.
