Peregrine Falcons of the subspecies tundrius are regular visitors to the pits at Ensley Bottoms in Memphis, TN. They stop in to dine on the fine array of shorebirds with a menu of 41 species from which to choose. Unfortunately this immature dropped in literally and I had to rescue it from the gunk. Neither he nor I were pleased with the ordeal.

This is a very well designed flying and killing machine, falcons have a notch on the tomium of the upper bill used to finish off their prey by severing the spinal cord, the dark under the eye has been picked up by football players to prevent glare, the visor like projection over the eye for less glare plus protection and the bony protuberance seen in the nare (nostril opening)is an airflow deflector that prevents a partial vacuum from being created that would make breathing near impossible when in a high speed dive. You will note that the military has such structures in the in-takes of jet engines, all we can do is copy Natures designs.