No one has precisely measured the falcon's speed, but in the 1930s an aviator had an opportunity to make an estimate. He was practicing a dive, toward a flock of ducks flying far below. At full power, the plane was descending at 175 miles per hour, when the pilot saw that he was being passed by a Peregrine Falcon that was going after the same ducks. As a Peregrine reaches its target, it strikes with closed talons, killing the bird with the blow, and then swoops around and catches its prey as it falls toward the ground. Of course, even the nice little birds in our back yards capture prey.
Robins pull worms out of lawns, after all, and swallows catch insects in the air.
But we would not call such birds raptors. We reserve the word raptor for birds of grander bearing. We mean eagles, ospreys, falcons, hawks, and kites. Raptors have powerful feet and claws, the weapons with which they strike and kill. Their beaks are hooked, for tearing prey apart.