The Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) is the fastest animal on Earth, clocked at over 320 km/h in its hunting stoop, with a top recorded speed of 389 km/h. It is a large, powerful falcon: slate-grey to blue-black above in adults, white to creamy below with dense black barring, a black "hood" and heavy black moustache against a white cheek, a medium-length dark tail with fine pale bands, a short blue-grey bill with a black tip, and bright yellow legs. Females are around 30% larger than males — reversed size dimorphism typical of raptors — with the male roughly the size of a Woodpigeon and the female somewhat larger than a crow; juveniles are brownish-beige with heavier streaking below, gaining adult plumage at 1–2 years. The call is sharp and insistent: a repeated hard "kja-kja-kja-kja" or "kek-kek-kek" warning call near the nest, and a softer mewing "ee-tjip" contact call between mates.
The stoop combines a height advantage of 300–1,000 m, wings folded tight for a torpedo-like shape, and a strike delivered with force equivalent to 25 g, often breaking the prey's neck on impact; prey is almost exclusively medium-sized flying birds such as feral pigeons, terns, waders, ducks, and small birds. The species nearly went extinct in Sweden in the early 1970s due to DDT, which caused eggshell thinning; from just 15 known pairs in 1969, a captive-breeding and release programme following the 1975 DDT ban rebuilt the population to 400–500 breeding pairs by 2024, one of Europe's most successful raptor recoveries. It nests on cliff ledges, and increasingly on tall buildings, bridges, and church towers in cities including Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö, laying no nest of its own but using a bare ledge or an old raven nest; the female lays 3–4 eggs, incubated 29–33 days, with chicks fledging after 35–42 days and remaining with the parents for a further 4–6 weeks to learn hunting technique. It breeds across the whole of Sweden and is classified as Near Threatened (NT) on the national red list, though globally it is Least Concern.
Read about this species in Swedish →