The shaheen falcon (''Falco peregrinus peregrinator'') is a non-migratory subspecies of the

peregrine falcon The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known as the peregrine, and historically as the duck hawk in North America, is a cosmopolitan bird of prey ( raptor) in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-grey ba ...

found mainly in the Indian subcontinent. It has also been described as a migratory subspecies. Describes subspecies ''peregrinator'' "from the southern Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka", says "current range...is defined as extending eastward into northern Myanmar and central and south-eastern China", and possibly as vagrants in Malaysia, but that their taxonomic status in some regions is uncertain. Other common names for the subspecies include the black shaheenVarious meanigns of Shahin

archive
and Indian peregrine falcon. The word ''shaheen'' in these names may also be spelled as ''shahin''. This species was termed as the black shaheen by falconers to separate it from the ''true'' shaheen of Persian literature. Scholars of Persian and the Russian ornithologist

Georgi Petrovich Dementiev Georgi Petrovich Dementiev (russian: Гео́ргий Петро́вич Деме́нтьев; 5 July, 1898 – 14 April, 1969) was a Soviet and Russian ornithologist and professor at the University of Moscow. His studies based on museum collections ...

have noted that the name shaheen in Persian literature actually referred to '' Falco peregrinus babylonicus''.

Etymology

Shaheen
and other variations come from Middle Persian šāhēn (literally "majestic, kingly") and the given name Šāhēn. Compare Middle Armenian շահէն (šahēn) and Old Armenian Շահէն (Šahēn). It has two meanings in Persian/Farsi: falcon, especially the Barbary falcon. The second meaning is a pointer of a scale.

Taxonomy

The taxon was formally described by

Carl Jakob Sundevall Carl Jakob Sundevall (22 October 1801, Högestad – 2 February 1875) was a Swedish zoologist. Sundevall studied at Lund University, where he became a Ph.D. in 1823. After traveling to East Asia, he studied medicine, graduating as Doctor of Me ...

in 1837 as a separate species, ''Falco peregrinator'', based on a juvenile specimen caught on a ship between Sri Lanka and the Nicobar Islands. Its taxonomic status as a subspecies of ''Falco peregrinus'' has been controversial for several years. Amidst conflicting views by ornithologists in the mid-19th century, the shaheen falcon was described as three new species: ''Falco shaheen'' from south India was described by Jerdon in 1839, ''Falco micrurus'' from Nepal and Burma was described by Hodgson in 1844, and ''Falco atriceps'' from Northern India was described by Hume in 1869. These three species were generally accepted as distinct until around the turn of the century, when all three were lumped together with Sundevall's ''Falco peregrinator'' as ''Falco peregrinus peregrinator''. The subspecies name ''peregrinator'', Latin for a wanderer or habitual traveler, reflects its traveling ability. The common English name ''shahin'' should not be confused with the same word in the

Indo-European language The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dut ...

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, the Turkic language Turkish, and the

Afroasiatic language The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

, where it may refer to falcons or a species of falcon. In the Indo-European language Hindi, ''shahin'' or ''shahin kohi'' (koh refers to a hill) refer to the female of the ''peregrinator'' subspecies, while males of the subspecies are referred to as ''kohila''.

Description

The shaheen is a small and powerful-looking falcon with blackish upperparts, rufous underparts with fine, dark streaks, and white on the throat. The complete black face mask is sharply demarcated from the white throat. It has distinctive rufous underwing-coverts. It differs in all these features from the paler ''F. p. calidus'', which is a scarce winter migrant to Sri Lanka. Males and females have similar markings and plumage; apart from size there is no sexual dimorphism. The birds range in length from 380 to 440 mm. The male is about the size of a

house crow The house crow (''Corvus splendens''), also known as the Indian, greynecked, Ceylon or Colombo crow, is a common bird of the crow family that is of Asian origin but now found in many parts of the world, where they arrived assisted by shipping. ...

(''Corvus splendens''); the female is larger.

Distribution and habitat

The shaheen is found in South Asia from Pakistan across to India and

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

in the east and to Sri Lanka, central and south-eastern China, and northern Myanmar. In India, it has been recorded in all states mainly from rocky and hilly regions. The shaheen has also been reported from the

Andaman and Nicobar Islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India consisting of 572 islands, of which 37 are inhabited, at the junction of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The territory is about north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated fr ...

in the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between ...

Sri Lanka

The shaheen is the local resident species of the peregrine in Sri Lanka where it is uncommon but found throughout the island in the lowlands, and at elevations of up to 1200 m in the hill country, frequenting mountain cliffs and rock outcrops. The sheer cliff faces provide it with nest sites and serve as vantage points from which it can launch aerial strikes against fast-flying birds such as swifts.

Sigiriya Sigiriya or Sinhagiri (''Lion Rock'' si, සීගිරිය, ta, சிகிரியா/சிங்ககிரி, pronounced see-gi-ri-yə) is an ancient rock fortress located in the northern Matale District near the town of Dambulla ...

is a well known site for it.

Ecology and behaviour

The shaheen is usually seen as a solitary bird, or in pairs on cliffs and rock pinnacles. Peregrines typically mate for life. Because of the size difference between a male and a female, a mated pair generally hunt different prey species. It is adapted to taking prey in the air and can achieve a speed of 240 kmh in level flight; when diving after prey it can exceed speeds of 320 kmh (200 mph).

Feeding

Shaheens mostly hunt small birds, though medium-sized birds such as pigeons and parrots are also taken. Strong and fast, they dive from great heights to strike prey with their

talons A claw is a curved, pointed appendage found at the end of a toe or finger in most amniotes (mammals, reptiles, birds). Some invertebrates such as beetles and spiders have somewhat similar fine, hooked structures at the end of the leg or tarsus ...

. If the impact does not kill the prey, the falcon bites the neck of its victim to ensure death.

Breeding

The reproductive season is from December to April. The birds occupy nests on high cliff ledges or in cavities and tunnels. They lay clutches of 3-4 eggs. The chicks fledge within 48 days with an average nesting success of 1.32 chicks per nest. In India the shaheen has been recorded as nesting on man-made structures such as buildings and mobile phone transmission towers.

Status

The conservation status of the shaheen in Sri Lanka is vulnerable. A preliminary population estimate of 40 breeding pairs there was made in 1996, based on a brief survey. The estimate was later corrected to 100 breeding pairs.

In culture

In Pakistani literature, the shaheen has a special association with the poetry of the country's national poet,

Allama Iqbal Sir Muhammad Iqbal ( ur, ; 9 November 187721 April 1938), was a South Asian Muslim writer, philosopher, Quote: "In Persian, ... he published six volumes of mainly long poems between 1915 and 1936, ... more or less complete works on philos ...

. It also appears on the official

seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to impr ...

of the

Pakistan Air Force , "Be it deserts or seas; all lie under our wings" (traditional) , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = ...

logo, and is used as a nickname for the

Pakistani cricket team The Pakistan national cricket team or Pak cricket team, often referred to as the Shaheens (), Green Shirts, Men in Green and Cornered Tigers is administered by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). The team is a Full Member of the International C ...

. A misprinted 1992 Indian stamp in a "birds of prey" series showed a picture of an osprey, with the incorrect denomination and the name ''Shahin Kohila'', the Hindi name for female shaheen falcons; one of these stamps sold for £11,500 in a 2011 London auction.