Many of us do not know the difference between an eagle and a falcon, but bird watching enthusiasts do.
It is wonderful to watch birds in the sky. Each bird has its own characteristics that distinguish it from others. Although there are There are many birds in the sky, confusion may arise when
the birds look similar to each other, and there is such confusion between an eagle and a falcon, and each of
these birds looks majestic in flight, and from a distance, one may imagine an eagle as a falcon or vice versa because of the large wings and body structure corresponding.
Eagle and falcon family
The eagle is a large bird of prey that belongs to the falcon family, and there are about 60 species of eagles, which are widely spread throughout
the regions of Eurasia, Africa, North, Central and South America, and Australia. On the other hand, the hawk is also a bird of prey, but it belongs to the family of Falconidae.
There are about 40 species of falcons spread all over the world except Antarctica, and while the eagle and falcon are both birds of prey, their hunting techniques are different.
The eagle has a heavy head and beak, and the smallest eagle in its family also has long and broad wings and is faster than other birds outside its family.
The eagle has a hooked beak that enables it to disassemble the flesh of the prey, and its legs are strong enough to catch the prey and make sure that it does not fall between its legs.
Its claws are very strong.
It can kill prey by simply grabbing it with its legs, and usually, it catches live prey.
The falcon is also a bird of prey, however, the eagle is considered to be stronger than the falcon, and it does not have a claw that is stronger
than the claw of an eagle, and its method of catching prey is to dive close to the prey and take it by surprise, on the other hand, the eagle catches its prey by grabbing it and crushing it with its
talons Strong, the falcon preys on small birds according to its habitat such as pigeons and doves, and the eagle, however, has a variety of prey that it looks forward to, and
this includes fish, snakes, terrestrial mammals, especially young offspring and other birds.
The physical characteristics of the eagle and the falcon
The eagle has a strong build, the falcon has a much less slender body compared to the eagle, the falcon's wings are pointed, the falcon's eyes are either black or dark brown, and it is not aggressive compared to the eagle.
On the other hand, the eagle has a broad-chested body with round wings, and the colors of its eyes vary, and it is aggressive Too, the falcon is not.
Feathers cover the wings of the falcon, and it has thin, pointed wings at the end, and the wings are wider than the body of the falcon, and the eagle also has legs polished to the toes, and in the case of
the sea eagle, its legs are covered with feathers up to half the toes, and it has round wings unlike the falcon, and the eagle has an edge prominent eyebrows above
his eyes, and is not found in falcons, and the eagle can search for larger prey, due to its size and body, and the falcon does not hunt due to its size.
What is the size of an eagle and a falcon
The height of an eagle can range from 40 cm to 1 meter, making it the largest bird in existence.
Due to this, there are fewer predators than the eagle itself.
However, this is not the same case when the eagle still as a chick does not have the strength to hunt for prey, and it is
The females of a few species are sometimes larger than the males, and the size of the falcon ranges between 25 cm and no more than 60 cm, which makes it relatively smaller than the eagle.
Although the falcon is one of the dominant predators, its strength is dwarfed by eagles, or when it is on the ground.
Wolves and humans are the main predators of falcons when they are on the ground, and even eagles and some owls tend to attack falcons of smaller sizes.
Breeding eagle and falcon
The female eagle builds nests on trees at a great height or on the slopes to stay safe, and the female eagle lays two eggs of white color, and hatching takes about a month, and in many
species, the young eagle is stronger than the other, which makes the other chick a weaker brother, and in some Often, the stronger sibling ends up killing the weaker sibling, and the parents take no action to stop the killing.
In the case of the falcon, it does not usually build nests, and uses a hole in trees, the natural hillside of cliffs, or a man-made structure to lay eggs, leaving the young and eggs little vulnerable to predators.
that can reach the nest.
The falcon begins to breed when it reaches the age of one year, and the female lays three to four eggs of whitish eggs with dark brown markings.
Then they meet only to mate, and the eagle is monogamous, that is, they mate for life and reuse the same nest after a year for mating.
The eagle has site loyalty and can live in a place for its entire life until conditions such as weather and food
availability become an issue, and falcons are solitary birds, so they either spend time in the same place or migrate up to 15,000 miles a year, and eagles do not migrate