Early this morning, Wang Jiqiang, the village party secretary of Renjiaba Village, Hanzhong City, Shaanxi Province, went out in the morning and suddenly saw a bird sitting in the grass on the side of the road, staring at him. This unidentified bird, , made him feel like an eagle in appearance. Its wings are pointed, its eyes are like a pair of black pearls, and the black marks on its head make it look like it is wearing a pilot's safety helmet, but its size is not too big, and it may only be slightly larger than a pigeon.
Wang Jiqiang guessed that this should be an national protected animal . Seeing that it had been staying in the grass and staring at it fiercely but did not fly away, it was probably injured. So Wang Jiqiang hurriedly called Wang Qinghai, the webmaster of the forestry station. Wang Qinghai rushed over quickly. Through observation of the characteristics of the bird's appearance, he determined that the bird was national second-class protected animal , which is known as the fighter among birds.
Falcanes are usually not big in size. Peregrine falcons are considered a relatively large category among falcons, weighing about one kilogram, and the females are larger in size, with a maximum length of 50 cm and a wingspan of more than 1 meter. This body size can only be called medium in all Raptors , but they dare to fight against Golden Eagle , which is twice their size.
The golden eagle weighs up to 7 kilograms and has a wingspan of more than 2 meters. It is called the king of Raptors. someone once took a video of a golden eagle falling from the air, grabbed a little lamb about twice its weight, and took it directly into the sky. In addition to sheep, it is said that sometimes wolves are also on the recipes of the Golden Eagle. In 2011, someone was seriously injured by the Golden Eagle, and a large piece of flesh was caught on his head, and the wound was deep and bones could be seen.
However, facing peregrine falcons much smaller than them, the golden eagles do not take much advantage. The peregrine falcon is very fierce in nature. As long as other birds of prey invade their territory, they will attack. For example, in 2014, American photographers once photographed two peregrine falcons shooting down a large raptor from the air.
Hunting 's eyes have two central retinal fossa, one deep and one shallow, with photosensitive cells densely covered with photoreceptors, which allows them to quickly adjust the focal length and lock the target.
The smaller body makes them more flexible than large raptors. They will fly to a high place first, occupy the commanding heights, and then quickly dive down, like a rapidly falling shell. When approaching the target, they use their sharp claws and beaks to attack key parts such as the hind brain of the prey, which directly makes them lose their ability to fly.
Even if the Golden Eagle of the Raptor King is hit by them, it will not feel good, and it will even be in danger of losing its life.
Wang Qinghai inspected the landed peregrine falcon and found that its wings were intact, except that there were skin trauma on its feet. He guessed that it was the injury on that made the golden eagle unable to hunt, so he was so hungry that he lost his ability to move and fell into the grass.
After feeding the peregrine falcon some water, Wang Qinghai took the peregrine falcon back to the forestry station to treat it, and then release it after it recovers from health.
has a speed that exceeds the high-speed rail, and inspired the aircraft to manufacture
The fastest flying bird in the world is diphtheria needle tail swift , with a flat flight speed of 169 kilometers per hour, and the bird with the fastest dive speed is the parade falcon. It is said that an aircraft pilot in the United States once flew at a speed of 250 kilometers per hour, but was surpassed by a diving peregrine falcon.
dive peregrine
In 2018, German ornithologists used radar to calculate the speed of a peregrine halberd. It dived to the ground at an oblique angle of about 1,500 meters from an altitude of about 1,500 meters. The fastest speed of reaches an astonishing 389 kilometers per hour, more than three times the speed of cheetahs. According to the standard of high-speed rail speed of 250 to 350 kilometers per hour, the peregrine falcon's speed is even faster than the high-speed rail. is truly comparable to mechanical power with flesh and blood.
They mainly prey on small birds such as wild ducks, swallows, pigeons, etc. The whole process of is extremely rapid, and even requires the help of high-speed camera to see its movements clearly. The female peregrine falcon is larger and likes to hunt wild ducks, so it is also called "duck tiger". The male peregrine falcon that prefers to prey on pigeons is called "pigeon tiger".
The moment when peregrine falcons hunt the mallard
They will first fly above the prey, then gather their wings and claws, turn their bodies into a V-shaped shape, and look like a bullet from the side, diving down the spiral path at an extremely fast speed. Their wings are not neat, but have a wave-like shape, with a groove between the neck and shoulders, which can reduce the resistance caused by airflow.
However, at such a high speed, a pretty fatal problem was also born - airflow separation. This situation is more common in aircraft. At ultra-high speeds, the gas does not flow completely along the surface of the object. At a certain angle, it will break away from the wings. This is the separation of airflow.
When the airflow on the upper surface of the wing quickly separates, the wing will suddenly lose lift and stall the wings. Large-scale wing stalls will further lead to the aircraft losing control.
And when the peregrine falcon is diving, a small tuft of feathers will suddenly pop up in the middle of the wings. These sudden appearance of feathers are similar to the ailerons on the wings of an aircraft or the wings on a sports car. not only cracks the phenomenon of airflow separation, maximizes aerodynamics, but also allows the airflow to flow smoothly through their bodies.
Inspired by peregrine falcons, researchers from the UK's BAE system company and City University of London are using D printing
technology to try to create a "sensing feather" that can be installed on the aircraft, hoping to change the airflow close to the surface of the aircraft, effectively reduce the drag encountered by the wings, make the flight faster, and early warning in case of stall danger.
Research Falcon imitation aircraft
By the way, this company is the third largest defense company in the world and has made many aircraft with ultra-high flight speeds. Some aircraft are also in service in Royal Air Force .
Back to the topic, in addition to the super high speed, has many special features on the peregrine falcon, which is also the reason why they can overcome various dangers at super high speed and become the king of the sky.
Special body structure
The first danger comes from itself. When flying at high speed, the object will produce gravity acceleration . Even the aircraft pilot can only withstand 9 times the gravity acceleration, which is equivalent to 9 weights of its own body weighing on the body. No matter how high a person is, it may lead to visual impairment or even coma events, which is also a major reason for limiting the speed of the aircraft.
, and the hunting falcons can withstand the limit of 25 times the gravity acceleration with its strong body and special skeleton structure.
The strong wind caused by high-speed flight is also a source of danger. It will quickly dry the eyes of the falcon, making them unable to see clearly the things ahead. Therefore, the eyes of the falcon have an extra layer of eyelids, called instant film, which can protect their eyes like goggles . Moreover, their tears also have special chemical components, making the tears sticky and not easy to evaporate, and play a lubricating role.
In addition to this, the violent storm of will also make most animals unable to breathe normally. , and the peregrine falcon chose to grow a small vertebra outside the nose to allow the air to enter the nasal cavity normally. This special small vertebrae also helped the early jet to break through the speed limit.
Jet planes
Because of the speed of peregrine falcons, they generally live in open areas such as fields, attacking birds flying at low altitudes, increasing the success rate of hunting, and preventing injuries from hitting the bushes. If the hunt fails, the peregrine falcon will not be discouraged, but will fly to the sky again and conduct a second dive attack.
The peregrine falcon is widely distributed and has always been popular among falcon trainers. During World War I , Germany had tamed peregrine falcons and used them to intercept the carrier pigeons used by the Allies to convey messages. However, because the peregrine falcons attacked the carrier pigeons without distinguishing between enemies and us, they were finally forced to stop.
Now, There are also tames of peregrine falcons near airports in some areas, and they use their deterrent power to low-altitude flying birds to drive away birds near the airport and prevent accidents of planes and birds colliding.
With the development of urban ecology, many birds have also settled their homes in cities, and hunting falcons are one of them. They will build bird nests on various high-rise buildings and platforms outside buildings to reproduce. If you look up, you may also see them among the tall buildings.
Peregrine falcon on high-rise
Reference
"Ferroic Air Hunter-Peregrine falcon" Hu Shuhui
"Peregrine falcon: Low-altitude Killer" Wu Yuemei
"Peregrine falcon-Wandering Falcon"
"British Developed 3D Printed Polymer "Sensing Feathers" to Improve Aircraft Performance"
"Peregrine falcon"
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