page_title: Black falcon
section_title: Flight and hunting style
hierarchical_section_title: Black falcon / Behaviour and ecology / Flight and hunting style
caption_attribution_description: Strzelecki Track, South Australia
context_page_description: The black falcon is a medium-large falcon that is endemic to Australia. It can be found in all mainland states and territories and yet is regarded as Australia's most under-studied falcon.
context_section_description: The falcon's flight has been described as variable. Generally it flies with relaxed ‘crow-like’ wingbeats with occasional soaring. It also flies with a stiffer, shorter wingbeat. It glides and soars with slightly drooped or sometimes horizontal wings, carpals forward (wings are stretched out straight when gliding). Tail is normally folded (except when soaring, when it is fanned with notched corners). It often soars for long periods without flapping and catches prey in the air or on the ground. In pursuit of prey it uses powerful, rapid wingbeats. While resting the bird's wing tips are shorter than the tail and legs appear short.
  The species usually hunts alone but has also been observed hunting cooperatively in pairs and occasionally in larger numbers, when prey is abundant (specifically, when stubble fires yield an abundant prey source. Twelve birds were seen at one such fire near Gundagai, NSW.
  They have often been observed using contour hunting (over treetops), surprising and taking birds on the wing. The species preys upon and is sometimes the prey of other raptors.
caption: Black falcon in flight
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