Peregrine Falcons and Gyrfalcons Across the Arctic: Stable, but Poorly Watched

A peregrine falcon. Image from the National Park Service's page.

The peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) and the gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus) are top predators among the birds of Arctic ecosystems. Both are monitored in many places, but the scientists studying large falcons across North America, Europe and Asia had rarely coordinated their work.

What the study did

A 2020 paper in the journal Ambio, whose authors include National Park Service wildlife biologist Carol McIntyre, gives the first overview of falcon monitoring sites around the Arctic. It compiles data from 24 sites, sets out long-term trends in how many nesting territories are occupied and how many young they produce, and summarises what is known of the two species' numbers, range, timing of breeding and health.

What it found

• Populations are generally stable. If the pattern holds beyond the places and years monitored, breeding populations across the wider Arctic are likely stable too.
• There are gaps. Monitoring is missing in eastern Russia, Canada's Arctic Archipelago and East Greenland.
• Sites are hard to compare. Differences in methods prevent direct comparison of measurements between sites; they cannot be fixed after the fact, but future monitoring can allow for them.

What it recommends

Despite those problems, the authors see ample room for a coordinated monitoring programme for Arctic-nesting birds of prey, one that supports the goals of the Arctic Council's Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP), through closer collaboration around the Arctic to fill the gaps and deepen what is known.

Sources

• National Park Service, "Peregrine Falcon and Gyrfalcon Populations Across the Arctic." https://www.nps.gov/articles/arcticpefa.htm
• Franke, A., K. Hawkshaw, S. Ambrose, … C. L. McIntyre, et al. 2020. Status and trends of circumpolar peregrine falcon and gyrfalcon populations. Ambio 49(3): 762–783, in the special issue Terrestrial biodiversity in a rapidly changing Arctic.
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