Ecology and Status
The Saker Falcon is a raptor of open grasslands preferably with some trees or cliffs. It often hunts by horizontal pursuit, rather than the Peregrine's stoop from a height, and feeds mainly on rodents and birds. In Europe, Ground Squirrels and feral pigeons are the most common prey items. This species usually builds no nest of its own, but lays its 3-6 eggs in an old stick nest in a tree which was previously used by other birds such as storks, ravens or buzzards. It also often nests on cliffs.
BirdLife International categorises this bird as endangered, due to a rapid population decline, particularly on the central Asian breeding grounds. Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United Arab Emirates has been the main destination for thousands of falcons caught and sold illegally for hefty sums at the black market. Kazakhstan is estimated to lose up to 1,000 Saker Falcons per year.
The species also faces pressure from habitat loss and destruction. The population was estimated to be between 7,200 and 8,800 mature individuals in 2004. In the United States there are several captive breeding projects. There are currently several successful breeding projects by falconers in Canada. The most dramatic decline of the Saker falcon in Asia has been in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. On the contrary, a strongly protected and relatively abundant population persist in Hungary.
Saker nests support a species-rich assemblage of commensal insects (Merkl et al. 2004).
Saker Falcons are known to be very susceptible to avian influenza, individuals having been found infected with highly pathogenic H5N1 (in Saudi Arabia) and H7N7 (in Italy) strains. Therefore an experiment was done with hybrid gyr-saker falcons, which found that 5 falcons vaccinated with a commercial H5N2 influenza vaccine survived infection with a highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, whereas 5 unvaccinated falcons died. This means that Sakers could be protected from bird flu by vaccination, at least in captivity.
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Egg - Muséum de Toulouse
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Captive, Carolina Raptor Center, USA
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Captive, Carolina Raptor Center, USA
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Captive bird, Chew Valley Lake, England
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Captive bird, Doha, Qatar
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Captive bird
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