A falcon that catches birds in flight. In North America it is common around coasts and cliffs and may nest on tall buildings.
North American adults have blue-grey backs, dark heads and barred underparts. Young birds have conspicuous vertical streaks on the breast.
Some peregrine falcons hunt birds gathering at urban roosts before sunrise or after sunset. In Bryne, Norway, one female launched hunts from a tall antenna and carried captured jackdaws to a balcony on an office building.
A study published in 2025 observed this adult female for thirty days, from 17 November to 16 December 2019. Several thousand corvids roosted in a nearby park in winter. The falcon perched on a 43-metre antenna before taking flight. The researcher counted forty-two departures as hunting attacks, classifying thirteen returns with prey as successful. Every identified prey item was a jackdaw.
The feeding destination was a nest box on a thirteenth-floor balcony. It was used for plucking, eating and resting rather than breeding. Nine of the thirteen successful attacks followed one or more flights ending in a return to the antenna without prey. The female repeatedly waited on her elevated perch, flew out and returned before carrying food to the balcony.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza is a conservation concern for peregrine falcons in the Netherlands. Research published in December 2024 reported that forty-nine peregrines were reported dead in 2023; thirty-two were tested and twenty-eight tested positive for H5 virus. The study combined national breeding-pair estimates, standardized counts of live birds and examinations of dead birds. The authors proposed targeted disease surveillance and prompt removal of infected prey-bird carcasses during mass mortality events.