Falconry - Hybrid Falcons

Hybrid Falcons

The species within the genus Falco are closely related and some pairings produce viable offspring. The heavy northern Gyrfalcon and Asiatic Saker being especially closely related, and it is not known whether the Altai Falcon is a subspecies of the Saker or descendants of naturally occurring hybrids. Peregrine and prairie falcons have been observed breeding in the wild and have produced offspring. These pairings are thought to be rare, however extra-pair copulations between closely related species may occur more frequently and/or account for most natural occurring hybridization. Some male first generation hybrids may have viable sperm, whereas very few first generation female hybrids lay fertile eggs. Because of these factors, naturally occurring hybridization is thought to be somewhat insignificant to gene flow in raptor species.

The first hybrid falcons produced in captivity occurred in western Ireland when veteran falconer Ronald Stevens and the Hon. John Morris put a male saker and a female peregrine into the same moulting mews for the spring and early summer, and the two mated and produced offspring.

Captively bred hybrid falcons have been available since the late 1970s, and enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity in North America and the UK in the 1990s. Hybrids were initially "created" to combine the horizontal speed and size of the gyrfalcon with the good disposition and aerial ability of the peregrine. Hybrid falcons first gained large popularity throughout the Arabian Peninsula, feeding a demand for particularly large and aggressive female falcons capable and willing to take on the very large Houbara Bustard, the classic falconry quarry in the deserts of the Middle East. These falcons were also very popular with Arab falconers as they tended to withstand a respiratory disease (aspergillosis from the mold strain aspergillus) in stressful desert conditions better than other pure species from the northern hemisphere.