How Fast Can A Falcon Dive?: Fascinating Answers to Questions about Birds of Prey

Peter Capainolo · Carol A Butler

Sept 2010 · Rutgers University Press

About this eBook

How Fast Can a Falcon Dive? explores the world of raptors in a way that will appeal to bird lovers and biology enthusiasts alike. This colorful volume is complete with more than fifty-five color and black and white images from photographers and artists around the world. In a reader friendly question and answer format, ornithologist Peter Capainolo and science writer Carol A. Butler define and classify raptors, explore the physical attributes of birds of prey, view how their bodies work, and explain the social and physical behaviors of these species-how they communicate, hunt, reproduce, and more. Capainolo, who received one of the first falconry licenses issued in New York state at age eighteen, relates his personal experience in falconry to describe raptor training and husbandry where the human-bird interactions are complex.

From stories of red-tailed hawks making their homes on the ledges of Manhattan skyscrapers to their role in protecting California's vineyards from flocks of grape-loving starlings, How Fast Can a Falcon Dive? explores how these avian predators interact with people and with their environment.

About the author

Peter Capainolo is senior scientific assistant in the department of ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History, an adjunct faculty member at the City University of New York, research associate and board member at the Long Island Natural History Museum, and serves on the New York State Falconry Advisory Board. Carol A. Butler is the coauthor of Salt Marshes: A Natural and Unnatural History, and books within the Rutgers Animal Q&A series including Do Butterflies Bite?, Do Bats Drink Blood?, Do Hummingbirds Hum?, and Why Do Bees Buzz? (all Rutgers University Press).