IDENTIFICATION

VOCALISATIONS

Pairs of the local taxon can be quite vocal as they interact, especially early in the breeding season, as in the following recording.

DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE

Peregrine Falcons are occur at a wide variety of coastal, inland and urban habitats, including tidal mudflats, gei wai, fish ponds, marshes, rocky coastlines, islands, grassland, shrubland, agricultural land, reclamations, tall buildings in dense urban areas and occasionally also forests. The greatest concentration of sightings is from Deep Bay where birds are often noted preying on the duck, wader and gull flocks during the winter and spring passage periods.

The breeding bird survey of 1993-96 recorded Peregrine in 1.7% of 1km squares, while the corresponding figure in 2016-19 was 0.8%. The decline occurred in the northeast and northern New Territories. There was little change across the two winter period surveys, however. Distribution in both seasons was concentrated in the southeast facing coastal areas and the central and northern New Territories.

Analysis of records during four three-year periods when reporting of this species was consistently good (1958-60, 1968-70, 1975-77 and 1995-97) indicates that Peregrine Falcon declined as an urban species in Kowloon and HK Island from the 1970s.

OCCURRENCE

Peregrine Falcons are recorded throughout the year at widespread localities, with both resident and migratory populations occurring. Figure 1 indicates that fewer birds occur in summer, with numbers dropping at the beginning of May and rising again from the third week of September; however, the relative change in numbers is probably exaggerated due to lower levels of observer activity during the hot summer months. Further, based on reports of birds showing characters of migrants from the north, it appears that the number of winter visitors is not as large compared to the local resident population as the chart might indicate.

Most reports refer to one to two birds, with three occasionally reported. An apparent steady increase in total numbers historically is thought attributable to a corresponding rise in observer activity, and a large increase in the percentage of reports from Deep Bay is no doubt also due to this.

After being observed near Hong Kong by Swinhoe (1861), Peregrine Falcon was regarded as fairly common in winter here by Vaughan and Jones (1913) and as occurring in the summer months by later authors (Aylmer 1932, Herklots 1953, Dove and Goodhart 1955, Walker 1958).

BREEDING

Breeding was first suspected at Lion Rock in 1936 (Lewis 1936) and was confirmed in 1969 when a nest on a small island in Tolo Harbour was found to contain three eggs on 7 March. Two young, approximately one week old, were noted on 7 April (Murton 1970). Also nests on buildings (e.g., approximately 56^th floor of Manhattan Heights, Kennedy Town in 2022), from where birds can take advantage of feral Rock Dove populations in the area. Aerial display flights have been noted between February and May.

BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET

Frequently seen hunting birds, especially pigeons, ducks and shorebirds, and occasionally also bats, both small and large. Prey items identified are Chinese Pond Heron, Little Egret, Common Teal, Chinese Francolin, Curlew Sandpiper, Black-tailed Godwit, Common Redshank, Common Greenshank, Wood Sandpiper, Saunders’s Gull, Black-headed Gull, Bridled Tern, Budgerigar Melopsittacus undulatus, Feral Pigeon, Oriental Turtle Dove, Spotted Dove, Little Swift, White-throated Kingfisher, Black-capped Kingfisher, Barn Swallow, Chinese Bulbul, Red-whiskered Bulbul, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Black-collared Starling and Crested Mynah. It has also been recorded hunting at night (Feare et al. 1995).

Usually seen in ones or twos. Pairs can be seen in winter and early spring circling each other followed by stoops, chasing or grappling of feet. Single birds disturbing the roosting or foraging flocks of shorebirds in Deep Bay can be a feature of the spring migration or winter periods.

RANGE & SYSTEMATICS

Worldwide breeding distribution largely between 45^oN and 75^oN; some populations resident, others migrate to wintering areas in southern North America, southern South America, sub-Saharan Africa, southeast Europe east through the Indian subcontinent to Indochina and east Asia and south to Australia (White et al. 2020). Occurs through much of China except for high altitude areas in the west (Liu and Chen 2020).

Polytypic. The locally-breeding resident subspecies F. p. peregrinator breeds from the Indian subcontinent to south and east China. Migratory subspecies also occur, however, and most of these are presumed to be F. p. calidus, which breeds from Lapland to northeast Siberia and is listed as a winter visitor to areas south of the Yangtze by Cheng (1987). Other taxa that could occur include F. p. japonensis, which breeds in northeast Siberia and Japan, and possibly even F. p. pealei, which breeds from the Aleutians to southwest Canada. In China several subspecies are said to occur by Liu and Chen (2020): peregrinator, calidus, japonensis, peregrinus, ernesti, babylonicus and peregrinoides.

CONSERVATION STATUS

IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend increasing.