I’ve been looking forward to revisiting this member of the Falco genus for a while. The New Zealand Falcon (Falco novaeseelandiae). New Zealand’s only species of falcon.
This medium size bird of prey feeds primarily on birds, small mammals, reptiles, and insects. It most often hunts from a perch or from a high circular flight pattern diving to take prey. Like most falcons, prey is caught with talons and then dispatched with a bite to the neck/spine (unless it’s insects because that’s just like eating popcorn).
This falcon was originally found exclusively in native forests and dense brush. However with extensive deforestation they have adapted to open grasslands and agricultural areas.
A big thanks to my dad for this excellent wood panel to work on and thanks to you all for looking at birds with me.
Well it took me two and a half months but it was a fun project and I really learned a lot. The first lesson was how much changes in taxonomy over ten years. I started his panel calling it “Hawks of the Buteo genus” and I was using a reference guide from 2001. Well not all of these are grouped in the Buteo genus anymore but that didn’t spoil my fun any.
This was a very fun and challenging project, from figuring out how to fit 24 hawks on one panel to laying them out in an orderly fashion. The first three rows are all found in North and South America. Row four finds a mix of Eurasian and African.
If anything this panel demonstrates the extensive biodiversity of North and South America and also my stubbornness in cramming as many hawks onto one page as possible.
Thank you so much for looking at birds with me.
My reference guide was:
James, and David. Raptors of the World. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001.
farnco illustrations 