Falco peregrinus
Order Falconiformes
Family Falconidae
Subfamily Falconinae
Other names: Duck Hawk
Adult.— Top and sides of head black, throat inclosed by two broad black stripes; rest of upper parts, wings, and tail bluish-gray; tail crossed with narrow black bars; throat and breast buffy, or white; belly buffy, crossed with narrow black bars.
Immature.— Upper parts blackish-gray, the feathers edged with brown; black bars bordering throat, as in adult; throat buffy; rest of under parts buffy or yellowish-brown, thickly streaked with black.
Nest, on steep cliffs.
Eggs, varying from buffy to brown, sometimes plain, sometimes spotted, or blotched.
The Duck Hawk breeds here and there on a few steep cliffs along the Hudson and in New England. Mount Tom and one or two other cliffs in Massachusetts, Eagle Cliff and Dixville Notch, N. H., and Lakes Willoughby and Memphremagog, Vt., each has an eyrie of these noble hawks. In most of New England the bird is a rather rare migrant or a still rarer winter resident. In April and May, and again in September and October, it is not infrequently seen along the sea-shore, where it preys on the sea-fowl and shore birds. When one approaches the cliff where a pair are breeding, the parents become much agitated, and fly up and down with a loud, harsh cry. The Duck Hawk may readily be known by its size, by the cut of its wings and tail, and by the black “mustaches.”
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)