Peregrine Vocalizations and What They Mean

Peregrine shouting in flight (photo by Chad+Chris Saladin)
Peregrine shouting in flight (photo by Chad+Chris Saladin)

Adult peregrines have four main vocalizations — only four.

Because the sounds have multiple meanings they cannot be interpreted without context.  To understand what a peregrine means, you’ll need to answer to these questions and see what the birds are doing in the sky and on the ledge:

  • How many peregrines are present at the time?
  • What are the peregrines doing? Are they perched or flying?
  • Are the peregrines at their nest site or somewhere else?  Are there eggs or chicks in the nest?
  • Is a non-peregrine enemy present?
  • What else is going on in the vicinity?

Ee-chup is a peregrine-to-peregrine vocalization.  Peregrines say “ee-chup” when they are looking at another peregrine.  They say it softly to their mates during ledge displays and more loudly when a new peregrine shows up.   The new peregrine may be an intruder or a potential mate.  It takes a lot of practice, listening and watching from the ground, to be able to tell whether an ee-chup means “Hello, my love” or something else.   Unless you can see both peregrines having the conversation, don’t assume you know what ee-chup means.  Here are three examples:

“Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)” xeno-canto by Paulo Belo. Genre: Falconidae.

“Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)” xeno-canto by Romuald Mikusek. Genre: Falconidae.

Chip call near/at the nest and sometimes while looking at the sky means “I see you, intruder. Go away.”  The chip call sounds ‘sweet’ but is actually a warning. “I see you, intruder. This nest is mine.”

Wailing means “I want something to change.”  The wail sounds awful but does not necessarily mean bad things are happening.  It really means “Things are not changing fast enough for my liking.”

There are so many reasons for the wail that you can’t tell what it means unless you’re watching them from the ground.  Peregrines wail to initiate a food transfer. (“I’m impatient — bring it now!”)  Peregrines wail when they’re looking for a mate (advertisement wail).  Sometimes they wail because they’re annoyed but don’t feel like getting up to deal with it.  Sometimes they wail because their rules of social behavior — few as they are — indicate the peregrine making the sound must wait for the other peregrine to deal with it.  For instance, “My dear, I want you to do something. It’s your job to do it but you aren’t doing it as fast as I want you to.”

Wail: This recording is labeled ‘alarm call’ but in fact is a wail out of context … it might even be an advertisement wail.

Chip plus wail: Two peregrines in Ecuador in the winter, one is diving at another on the ground, perhaps to make him go away. My guess is that the “chip” is saying “I see you, Other Peregrine” and the wailer is saying “I want you to stop annoying me!”  It’s important to note that without seeing these two peregrines it’s hard to know what they’re saying but we can guess that they aren’t happy.

Kak: means “Get out of here, Enemy!”  Kaks are used against enemy species: humans, raptors and other non-peregrine enemies.   If you hear kakking on the Pitt nestcam it means humans or a raptor are nearby and the peregrines don’t like it. Kakking sounds like this:

“Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)” from xeno-canto by Bernard BOUSQUET. Genre: Falconidae.

Chitter: is a rapid chi chi chi close contact sound from mate-to-mate. Because of its low volume and private context, this sound is not often heard on nestcams.  Paraphrased from Cornell’s Birds of North America:  “It is usually given by the male prior to or during copulation. In captive breeding, it may be given by either sex during agonistic Head-Low Bow Display, when forcing mate off eggs, or by female when forcing Food Transfer.”

p.s. Many thanks to Chad+Chris Saladin who explained the first three vocalizations and showed them to me in context at the Hope Memorial Bridge, Cleveland, Ohio.

(photo by Chad+Chris Saladin)

16 thoughts on “Peregrine Vocalizations and What They Mean

  1. Thank You Kate ! Thank You Chis &Chad !

    It’s nice to hear Polish falcons. In this National Park I watched and heard peregrine falcons. 🙂

  2. I have a falcon that has been constantly sounding dawn til dusk for at least for or more day. It dose not seem like a baby is down. It may have lost it’s mate? There are crows but they are not attacking. It is like every minute and is getting really irritating. There is nothing I can do.

    1. Michael J Cummins, there’s a hawk that makes a lot of noise near it’s nest: the red-shouldered hawk. They are especially noisy in Florida. I believe they stop when the breeding season is over. … But I’ll have to look into that.

  3. I have a community garden and the perserve released a falcon in the park. In my garden I trapped some voles and she flys to the garden for me to feed her from a far. I wanted to get a falcon whistle to train the falcon to perch on my falconry glove. Can you recommend a whistle that would provide the right sound to train the falcon to come to me.

    1. Al, there is no whistle that will make a falcon come to you. If you get training to become a falconer and you train with an individual bird, you and the bird will become a team and a whistle may be useful. It takes many years to learn falconry, in which one starts with “beginner” bird species such as red-tailed hawks and works ones way up to falcons. Learn more about falconry at the North American Falconers Association: https://www.n-a-f-a.com/page/AboutFalconry

  4. Thank you so much for this information. I’ve had one wailing in my back yard all evening and it took me a long time to identify it online. Your explanation puts me at ease to know she’s not in distress!

  5. Thanks for sharing. Gives me a better understanding of a Perrigrine tgat stared me down in a parking lot screaming at me one day.

  6. I have a juvenile Red Shoulder Hawk that hangs around my home, which sets off by itself on a small hill. It screeches alot. It first did it all day for about 2 weeks. Now it will do it for 2-3 hours in the morning and a couple hours late afternoon to early evening. This has been going on now for about a month and a half.
    It’s the only one I see around. So I’m not sure if its all by itself or not.

  7. I think I have a juvenile Peregrine falcon that lives across the street, in the tree. I hear it almost all day and it’s been in my tree in the front yard. I don’t see any other falcons. Same thing this time last year. Does this mean there is a nest nearby and they will return every year? The falcon last year stayed around for about 3-4 weeks.

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