Brown falcon

Falco berigora Vigors & Horsfield, 1827

The brown falcon (Falco berigora) is a species in the family Falconidae, order Falconiformes. Recorded adults weigh 501.8 g to 681.4 g and live up to 13.3 years. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Photo: jjron · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the brown falcon

Weight: 501.8 g – 681.4 gsrc for Weight
Length: Not recorded
Wingspan: 88 cm – 1.15 msrc for Wingspan
Lifespan: 13.3 yearssrc for Lifespan
Diet: Carnivoresrc for Diet
Longest recorded lifespan: 24 years
Main food: Not recorded
Habitat: woodlandsrc for Habitat
Young per litter or clutch: 2.4 – 2.9src for Young per litter or clutch
Lifestyle: Generalistsrc for Lifestyle
Migration: Sedentarysrc for Migration
Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record: 1 countrysrc for Countries on record

How big is the brown falcon?

At 1.15 m, the recorded maximum wingspan of the brown falcon is about 68% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the brown falcon live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The brown falcon is listed for 1 country.

Listed
Not listed

small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

Australia

Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.

What is the brown falcon?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The brown falcon (Falco berigora) is a relatively large falcon native to Australia and New Guinea.
A number of plumage morphs occur, with the primary distinction being between the pale morph and the dark morph. Both morphs usually have dark brown upper parts and wing coverts. Dark morph birds have predominantly dark under parts, although some light streaking is common. Pale morph birds have white underparts that are varyingly streaked with brown, sometimes heavily so. Pale individuals may also have prominently white under tail coverts and these may be diagnostic. A distinctive aspect of their behaviour is shown in the breeding season when brown falcons make a loud, high pitched, cackle call (like a laying hen) and screeching while in flight.
The species name berigora has Aboriginal origins.

From the Wikipedia article “Brown falcon” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brown_falcon&oldid=1379852170), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the brown falcon endangered?

The brown falcon is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

LCLeast Concern
NTNear Threatened
VUVulnerable
ENEndangered
CRCritically Endangered
EWExtinct in the Wild
EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

How is the brown falcon classified?

kingdomAnimalia
phylumChordata
classAves
orderFalconiformes
familyFalconidae
genusFalco
SpeciesFalco berigora Vigors & Horsfield, 1827

Synonyms Hieracidea berigora, Hieracidea orientalis, Ieracidea berigora

Other names and names in other languages (37)

Whistling falconEnglish
صقر بنيArabic
falcó berigoraCatalan
raroh proměnlivýCzech
hebog gwinauWelsh
BrunfalkDanish
HabichtfalkeGerman
HabichtsfalkeGerman
Καφέ ΓεράκιGreek
bruna falkoEsperanto
Halcón pardoSpanish
Halcón berigoraSpanish
viupistrikEstonian
ruskojalohaukkaFinnish
Faucon berigoraFrench
Faucon bérigoraFrench
smeđi sokolCroatian
hosszúlábú sólyomHungarian
Alap-alap coklatIndonesian
Falco brunoItalian
チャイロハヤブサJapanese
rudasis sakalasLithuanian
HaviksvalkDutch
Grote Bruine ValkDutch
sokół brunatnyPolish
falcão-marromPortuguese
falcão-berigoraPortuguese
falcão-castanhoPortuguese
БеригораRussian
Бурый соколRussian
sokol pustovkovitýSlovak
rjavi sokolSlovenian
Smeđi sokoSerbian
Kahverengi doğanTurkish
Uzun Bacaklı DoğanTurkish
сокіл бурийUkrainian
褐隼Chinese

Catalogue of Life Wikipedia iNaturalist Wikidata WoRMS IUCN Red List

Relatives of the brown falcon

Other species in the same genus Falco.

Peregrine falcon

Falco peregrinus

Falconidae

Common kestrel

Falco tinnunculus

Falconidae

Eurasian hobby

Falco subbuteo

Falconidae

Merlin

Falco columbarius

Falconidae

Gyrfalcon

Falco rusticolus

Falconidae

Red-footed falcon

Falco vespertinus

Falconidae

CompareBrown falcon vs Peregrine falcon Brown falcon vs Common kestrel Brown falcon vs Eurasian hobby Brown falcon vs Merlin

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the brown falcon?

An adult brown falcon weighs 501.8 g – 681.4 g and has a wingspan of 88 cm – 1.15 m, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the brown falcon live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the brown falcon for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the brown falcon endangered?

The brown falcon is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

How long does the brown falcon live?

The brown falcon has a recorded lifespan of 13.3 years.

What kind of animal is the brown falcon?

The brown falcon (Falco berigora) belongs to the family Falconidae in the order Falconiformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7
Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Brown falcon (Falco berigora). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-falcon

MLA

“Brown falcon (Falco berigora).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-falcon.

BibTeX

@misc{brown_falcon_2026,
  title = {Brown falcon (Falco berigora)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-falcon},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}