10 Beautiful Species of Falcons Found in India

Falcon family of Falconidae includes falcons, kestrels, hobby and caracaras, ranging from large, small to medium-sized birds of prey found across the world. The raptors or bird of prey are hunt and feed on other birds, There are 10 known species of Falcons found in India listed below.

Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)

Peregrine falcon is a raptor that is renowned for its speed of over 320 km/h, making it the fastest bird in the world.
The bird-eating raptor is a highly successful bird of urban wildlife, widely introduced by humans and a top predator of rock pigeons.

Shaheen Falcon (Falco peregrinus peregrinator)

Shaheen falcon is a subspecies of the peregrine falcon that found mainly in the Indian subcontinent and is a non-migratory bird. The species also known as Indian peregrine falcon with blackish upperparts, black face mask and hunt small birds like pigeons and parrots.

Laggar Falcon (Falco jugger)

Laggar falcon is known as jugger in Hindi, is a mid-sized species of bird of prey found in the Indian subcontinent and is the most common falcons in the region of Thar desert.
The jugger have been seen feeding on Indian spiny-tailed lizard that found at few patches across the Great Indian Desert. Pic Credit – Amit Sood Twitter.

Amur Falcon (Falco amurensis)

Amur falcon is a small raptor of the falcon family found in India, They migrate in large flocks across Nagaland in India and now free from being trapping and capture during the migrating Amur falcons in Nagaland.

Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug)

Saker falcon is mainly migratory and breeds in Europe, wintering from Arabian peninsula to India.
Falco cherrug species is a large falcon bird, slightly larger, darker and heavy species than the lanner falcon and is a raptor of open grasslands.

Red-necked Falcon (Falco chicquera)

Red-necked falcon is another beautiful bird of prey in the falcon family with chestnut red cap and bluish grey wings.
The small bird of prey from the falcon family with chestnut red cap with short chin straps found mainly in the open plains of the India Subcontinent, also also known as the red-headed merlin or red-headed falcon.

Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)

Common kestrel is also from the group of the falcon family Falconidae and more commonly occurs over a large range in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
The common kestrel bird of prey species mostly found around the jungle of Western, Nilgiris and Eastern Ghats of India.

Merlin (Falco columbarius)

The merlin is a lesser known species of falcon found in India, only comes to India during the winter season. Merlin falcon bird have been seen in Little Rann of Kutch in Kutch district of Gujarat and are migratory, wintering in warmer regions of the world.

Oriental Hobby

Oriental hobby species of falcon is only found in the northern parts of the Indian Subcontinent, from the great Himalayas to Australasia.
The Indian species of hobby falcon feeds mainly on insects, rodents, grasshoppers, flying insects and birds.

Lesser Kestrel (Falco naumanni)

Lesser kestrel species is another well known a small falcon that breeds from Mediterranean to Asia and a very rare winter migrant bird to India.
This small bird of prey is not at all closely related to the common kestrel but belong to the same family of Falconidae that also includes hobby and falcons.