prairie falcon

noun

1. a North American falcon, Falco mexicanus, grayish-brown above and white barred with brown below.

Word History and Origins

Origin of prairie falcon¹

An Americanism dating back to 1870–75

Example Sentences

He returned a few days later in his Ford F-150 pickup with a lone, white-and-gray mottled gyr prairie falcon, an adolescent named Tilda.

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Swanson guided the raptor — a hybrid of the Arctic gyrfalcon and Western U.S. prairie falcon, which can dive at speeds of around 100 miles per hour — onto his leather-gloved fist and walked with Savastano and Gillian up onto the boardwalk.

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In contrast, many birds, such as the American kestrel and the prairie falcon, are exposed “to the full brunt of global heating,” explains Andrew McKechnie, a physiological ecologist at the University of Pretoria who was not part of the study.

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A prairie falcon - the same species whose hunt inspired him during childhood - which was well to the east of its normal range.

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A nearby ranger explained that he had just seen a prairie falcon kill a dove.

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