Barbary-Falcon_adult-flight-Fuerteventura_w_9414
The Barbary falcon (Falco peregrinus pelegrinoides) is a bird of semi-desert and dry open hills. It typically lays its eggs in cliff-ledge nests.
It is similar to the peregrine falcon, but smaller at 33–39 cm length with a wingspan of 76–98 cm. Recently, it has been found to be genetically similar to other subspecies of Peregrine falcon, so it is now considered a subspecies.
The female is larger than the male. It resembles its relative in general structure.
Adults have paler grey-blue upperparts than the peregrine, and often have a buff wash to the barred underparts, whereas the larger species has a white background colour. The nape is rufous, but this is difficult to see.
Sexes are similar, apart from size, but the young birds have brown upperparts and streaked underparts. The streaking is lighter than in the juvenile peregrine.
The call is a high-pitched "rek-rek-rek".
The Barbary falcon also bears some resemblance to the lanner falcon, but can be distinguished from that species at rest by the head-pattern, and in flight, by the proportions, flight action and underwing pattern.
The Barbary falcon differs in appearance from the peregrine falcon according to Gloger's rule. The genetic distance is slight and the species form a close-knit and somewhat paraphyletic group in DNA sequence analyses. In fact, some taxonomic authorities consider it conspecific. They differ more in behaviour, ecology and anatomy.
They are able to produce fertile hybrids, but they are generally allopatric and only co-occur during breeding season in small areas such as the Maghreb, the Punjab, Khorasan, and possibly the Mongolian Altai, and there is clear evidence of assortative mating with hybridization hardly ever occurring under natural conditions. In short, though they occupy adjacent territories, they breed at different times of year and Barbary falcons virtually never breed with peregrines in nature.
The fossil record adds little to the issue. A humerus some 9,000 years old (i.e., after the last ice age) from the Aswan area in Egypt, where Falco peregrinus minor occurs today, was identified to belong to the peregrine.
The Barbary falcon is one of the rare cases that may arguably be considered a species under the biological species concept, but certainly not under the phylogenetic species concept rather than the other way around as usual. This case demonstrates that what makes a "species" is not only its descent, but also occurs to a population in the course of evolution, how it adapts, and how this affects its reproductive isolation (or lack thereof) from sister taxa.
Barbary-Falcon_adult-flight-Fuerteventura_w_9414
The Barbary falcon (Falco peregrinus pelegrinoides) is a bird of semi-desert and dry open hills. It typically lays its eggs in cliff-ledge nests.
It is similar to the peregrine falcon, but smaller at 33–39 cm length with a wingspan of 76–98 cm. Recently, it has been found to be genetically similar to other subspecies of Peregrine falcon, so it is now considered a subspecies.
The female is larger than the male. It resembles its relative in general structure.
Adults have paler grey-blue upperparts than the peregrine, and often have a buff wash to the barred underparts, whereas the larger species has a white background colour. The nape is rufous, but this is difficult to see.
Sexes are similar, apart from size, but the young birds have brown upperparts and streaked underparts. The streaking is lighter than in the juvenile peregrine.
The call is a high-pitched "rek-rek-rek".
The Barbary falcon also bears some resemblance to the lanner falcon, but can be distinguished from that species at rest by the head-pattern, and in flight, by the proportions, flight action and underwing pattern.
The Barbary falcon differs in appearance from the peregrine falcon according to Gloger's rule. The genetic distance is slight and the species form a close-knit and somewhat paraphyletic group in DNA sequence analyses. In fact, some taxonomic authorities consider it conspecific. They differ more in behaviour, ecology and anatomy.
They are able to produce fertile hybrids, but they are generally allopatric and only co-occur during breeding season in small areas such as the Maghreb, the Punjab, Khorasan, and possibly the Mongolian Altai, and there is clear evidence of assortative mating with hybridization hardly ever occurring under natural conditions. In short, though they occupy adjacent territories, they breed at different times of year and Barbary falcons virtually never breed with peregrines in nature.
The fossil record adds little to the issue. A humerus some 9,000 years old (i.e., after the last ice age) from the Aswan area in Egypt, where Falco peregrinus minor occurs today, was identified to belong to the peregrine.
The Barbary falcon is one of the rare cases that may arguably be considered a species under the biological species concept, but certainly not under the phylogenetic species concept rather than the other way around as usual. This case demonstrates that what makes a "species" is not only its descent, but also occurs to a population in the course of evolution, how it adapts, and how this affects its reproductive isolation (or lack thereof) from sister taxa.