Falcons vs. Seahawks: Which Bird Would Win?
Living in Seattle as I do, it’s hard to get away from the Seattle Seahawks during football season. The team’s particular shades of blue and green hang from high rises and illuminate windows all over the city. During the latter stages of the team’s successful Super Bowl run in 2014, “Go Hawks” was effectively used as a parting remark, often immediately after “see ya.”
I wouldn’t really call myself a football fan. I’ll watch with friends and family in a group, but my interest doesn’t reach much further than that. But, something that does consistently hold my interest is the exciting world of birdwatching. So, when I learned my home team would be playing another featuring a bird as their mascot today, I figured what better time to play a little “what if” with two real-live animals.
Who would win in a theoretical fight between a real falcon and a real seahawk?
In This Corner — the Seahawk
Let’s get some basic stuff out of the way first. What exactly is a seahawk? Well, the birding world doesn’t officially recognize a bird called a “seahawk” (just as there’s technically no “sea gull,” but that’s a different article). Jess Greenspan, writing for the Audubon Society, explains that the term “seahawk” is most commonly associated with an osprey.
Ospreys are a common type of hawk that feeds exclusively on fish. They can range all over North America, but are most common in coastal areas or where there are abundant shallow bodies of water. According to AllABoutBirds.org, ospreys are particularly known for their ability to dive straight into bodies of water to catch their favorite meal. Ospreys average 2 feet in length, have a wing span of 5–6 feet and weigh between 3 and 4 pounds.
In Seattle, the brown-and-white osprey is most often seen patrolling Lake Washington, wings slightly kinked as it soars over the water. Their hooked beaks and bright yellow talons are well suited to capturing and devouring fish. They also have big, bright yellow eyes, perfect for zeroing in on unsuspecting fish (and staring into your soul).
But enough of this boring sciencey stuff. What’s an osprey like when it fights? Like most birds of prey, ospreys will lead with their fish-destroying talons in fights against other birds. An osprey’s foot is unique among raptors in that it allows grasping with two toes in front and two behind (as compared to three in front and one behind). This ability allows them to carry fish lengthwise when flying, to cut down on wind resistance. John Eastman, writing in the (awkwardly long-named) Birds of Lake, Pond, and Marsh: Water and Wetland Birds of Eastern North America, describes this setup as a “net of talons.” That would also make a pretty good heavy metal band name.
Ospreys will aggressively defend their nesting sites from other birds, even bald eagles in some instances. A report from 2013 in Michigan described an osprey mother nearly ripping a great blue heron to pieces after the heron landed on the osprey’s nest (and herons are not small birds). As one witness described it:
“[The heron] was soaking wet with a three-inch gash on his neck and puncture wound in his beak,” said Maxie Biwer, a veterinarian. “He was in shock. It took a couple hours for him to stop shaking.”
Long story short: don’t even think about messing with an osprey nest.
In This Corner — the Falcon
Now we move to the generically named “falcon” of Atlanta. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources lists three species of falcon native to the state: The small merlin and kestrel, and the larger peregrine falcon. Given the size of the wings compared to the body in the Atlanta Falcon’s logo, I’m going to assign the peregrine as Atlanta’s representative falcon.
Peregrine falcons are often called the jet fighters of the bird world for their blinding speed. According to AllAboutBirds.org, peregrines can reach speeds of 200 mph when diving for prey. Their average cruising flight speed, the equivalent of me walking to the store, is between 24 and 35 mph.
Peregrines are bird hawks by trade, diving down on medium-sized birds (such as ducks) from above “in a spectacular stoop,” as AllAbout Birds puts it. This sort of dive (correctly called a “stoop,” not a “swoop”) typically stuns their prey with shear force, allowing the peregrine to then rip its prey’s throat out without much struggle.
Peregrines are mostly found in the western U.S. but in varying habitats, from mountainous areas, to coastlines to cities, where they’ll hunt for the common pigeon (or rock pigeon for any birders reading this). They average about a 1.5 feet long, have a 3.5-foot wingspan and weigh about 3.5 pounds.
Even a cursory Google search will find numerous videos of peregrines harassing other, larger birds, in defense of nest sites or prey. As Mike Unwin describes in his appropriately named book Peregrine Falcon, peregrines will aggressively defend their territory from other birds of all sizes, including other peregrines. Peregrine-vs.peregrine battles are not uncommon, Unwin writes, with two birds locking talons in mid-air and sometimes plummeting all the way to the ground. Nothing like an aerial battle to show how badass you are as a bird of prey.
The Battle
Now comes the fun part: pure speculation on whether an osprey or peregrine falcon would win in a fight, based on my non-expert knowledge of these two birds. Let this be a caveat: I am neither an expert in raptor biology nor football, so take everything I say with a rather large pile of salt.
Given that football spawned the idea for this piece, I figured I’d take some key attributes of a good football player and see where each of these birds stacks up:
Maneuverability
Before I even starting typing this word, I knew the peregrine would have the edge. Peregrines make their living hunting other birds from the air, and all manner of birds at that. AllAboutBirds says 450 North American species have been documented as prey items. That’s a huge menu that includes the sizable sandhill crane all the way down to the tiny and quick hummingbird. Also, check out this passage from the above-mentioned book Peregrine Falcon:
“If the prey avoids the first stoop, the falcon may rise again and repeat the dive, or it may roll over and try to strike the target from below.”
Ospreys, on the other hand, have their soaring game down, but are not as maneuverable as other hawks. Their hunting style is more straight up and down, as not many on-the-fly banks and swerves are needed to catch fish from the air. For aerial mastery, I’m giving the point to the peregrine falcon.
Advantage: Peregrine
Power
Though ospreys and peregrines typically weigh about the same, the advantage here leans toward the osprey for me. Ospreys have to be able to wrangle slippery, muscular fish on a regular basis and carry them from point A to point B. Plus, they’ve got that formidable “net of talons” and a sizable beak as their main weapons. Peregrines, on the other hand, are designed for taking down relatively light-bodied birds, not hefty fish. Toe-to-toe, it seems like an osprey has a good chance of overpowering a peregrine.
Here I’m also taking hunting prowess into account. Ospreys are master fishers and typically have a 70 percent success rate when hunting, as AllAboutBirds reports. Peregrines, according to Unwin, manage to successfully catch other birds 60 percent of the time. For all these reasons, I’m giving the “power” category to the osprey.
Advantage: Osprey
Attitude
Most of what I’ve read in researching this piece shows the peregrine falcon to be a feisty little bastard. As I mentioned above, videos abound of peregrines fighting off much larger birds in defense of nests. One notable video shows a peregrine dive bombing a red-tailed hawk. The hawk gets hit fast from above and only recovers after at least five seconds of flailing around in mid-air. Another account from a newspaper in Idaho describes a mated pair of peregrines taking on a golden eagle that was apparently sitting on the wrong perch:
“The female falcon, larger and more aggressive than the male, attacked first. She pitched, rolled and dove toward the much larger eagle. It held steady as she veered away, letting her mate stage his first attack as she repositioned to stage her second… The eagle soon got the hint and launched off the branch with a stretch of its massive wings.”
Ospreys, though, seem less willing to fight if given the chance. They’ll fiercely defend their nests, but these raptors seem more likely to get their catches stolen when fishing then peregrines. Bald eagles reportedly will choose to nest near ospreys on purpose, as a large part of their diet is scavenging/stealing kills from other raptors. Bald eagles have even been known to hunt ospreys themselves, on occasion (I’ve included the video at that link below. Warning: not for the squeamish.). To me, a peregrine just wouldn’t let that kind of shit stand. In the “attitude”category, the peregrine has the edge.
Advantage: Peregrine
The Result
I may be alienating some of my hardcore Seahawk fan friends here, but I have to try to be unbiased. I’m going to have to give this one to the peregrine falcon. The osprey may have a leg up in the “power” category, but it simply can’t match the peregrine for maneuverability and attitude. A peregrine would be faster and meaner and would likely just force the osprey to give up and fly away. An osprey could likely take a peregrine in a ground-based wrestling match, but a peregrine would not let it get to that point. A 200-mph strike from above, and the osprey would be down for the count.
Despite my treasonous commentary on a theoretical fight between a falcon and a seahawk, I would be truly remiss if I didn’t end by saying: Go Hawks!
All images in this article used under a Creative Commons license.
