Falcons look like hawks but are closer kin to parrots
For generations, falcons and hawks were filed together as one order of daytime raptors. Then a 2008 DNA study showed falcons are more closely related to parrots and songbirds. The hawks, eagles, kites, ospreys and their relatives now form their own order, the Accipitriformes, the largest group of diurnal birds of prey.
The name joins Latin accipiter, hawk, with formes, having the form of. The order takes in most day-flying raptors, including hawks, eagles, Old World vultures, kites, ospreys and secretary birds, but not falcons, seriemas or owls, which are mostly nocturnal and sit in an order of their own. It currently counts 262 species in 75 genera, spread across four living families and perhaps one extinct one.
Reclassification did not stop with falcons. After the 2008 study, major ornithological committees in North and South America and the International Ornithological Congress moved falcons beside parrots in their lists. The New World vultures caused a longer argument: the South American committee kept them in a separate order, but a 2021 analysis of mitochondrial genes found close ties, and they are now normally counted as a family within the Accipitriformes.
Members share a toolkit. They have a sharply hooked beak with soft skin, the cere, around the nostrils, and long, fairly broad wings built for soaring, with the outer four to six main flight feathers notched. Strong legs end in raptorial claws, including an opposable hind claw. Almost all eat meat and hunt by sight, by day or at dusk. The group dates back to the Middle Eocene, and DNA suggests its internal branching began around 34 million years ago.
Their lives run slow. They are exceptionally long-lived and most breed at low rates. Chicks grow very fast, then rely on their parents for 3 to 8 weeks after first flying, and spend 1 to 3 years as immature adults. Females are often much bigger than males, sometimes more than twice as heavy, a gap most extreme in bird-hunting Accipiter hawks. Pairs are generally monogamous, though a bird that loses its mate often finds another.
Source: Accipitriformes
