By Carter and Karson

Falcons are birds of prey ~ they eat live food. They mostly eat birds, but will eat rabbit, rat, and other rodents.

A Peregrine will typically fly above their prey. Then they fold their wings and dive, or stoop, at the prey and strike it with a half closed talon. Falcons are also swift flyers and they can simply fly up behind their prey and grab them in mid - flight.

As you can see talons (claws) are all different shapes and sizes. The peregrines is the last one the right. Although it is the smallest it is also the sharpest. When the falcon is killing its prey it uses it talons to break it apart and eat it.

The digestive system of birds is complex for the size of most birds. A small bird can eat up to twenty percent of its body weight daily. Birds have an extremely high metabolism so to keep up with the requirements, birds must eat a large amount of food. We think falcons need to eat 2-3 birds a day!

The falcons food is swallowed in chunks and goes first into the crop. Acid in the crop breaks down, or melts the food, then it goes into the gizzard. It keeps breaking down until it comes out the cloaca. The acid goes into the crop and gizzard from the pancreas. Air also comes fast into the crop and gizzard. It goes into the liver, back up to the crop, and out the mouth within 1-2 seconds!

P EREGRINE F ALCON S N EEDS To meet their need of being an efficient flyer while remaining as light as possible, the digestive system of birds has to be both as light and efficient. The weight of the digestive system has been minimized by the loss of teeth.

Our Thoughts Carter - The digestive system is not what I thought it would be. I thought it was not going to be so complex. Karson - The digestive system is fun and can also be very gross. For example : liver, crop, cloaca, and the, pancreas. They are weird looking organs, but they are important to birds!

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