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Peregrine Falcons are relatively small raptors. They have a black head with yellow eye-ring, white half-collar, thinly barred grey-brown front (breast, belly and vent) and grey wings with dark-grey tips. The tail is barred grey. The bill is grey, with a yellow cere; the legs and feet are yellow. The underwing pattern is barred grey-brown, similar to the front of the body. Females are much larger than males. First-year Peregrine Falcons have a heavily streaked front, with an inconspicuous collar. The overall appearance is browner than an adult's.

"Raptors" (or "birds of prey"), most prominently, but also some species of waders, show a pronounced "dimorphism", i.e. a difference between male and female birds - not just in the appearance of the plumage, but in other, important properties, such as size or strength. Here we explain why.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Peregrine Falcon is available HERE .

Peregrine Falcons are the species with the most wide-ranging distribution on Earth. For details on the ranges of the currently accepted 19 races, see e.g. a field guide or Wikipedia (also the more detailed range map). Basically, the only areas - apart from Antarctica, Iceland, most of Greenland and other far-northern islands - where they do NOT occur are the greater Amazon basin and Mato Grosso, the major deserts (Sahara, Gobi, central Arabia) and inland areas of central western Africa.

Peregrine Falcons, race "babylonicus", are winter visitors in Oman from their breeding grounds in central Iran and north-eastwards along the border region of Kazachstan and China, to the western tip of Mongolia.

In Oman Peregrine Falcons, race "babylonicus", are found all along the (near-)coastal fringe, from the border region with the UAE at the northern tip of the Arabian peninsula, to the border with Yemen (South of which race "pelegrinoides" is found).

Race "babylonicus"

Race "macropus"