Prairie Falcon Photos

Photography by Terry Sohl

My Favorite: One of my favorite South Dakota species, but unfortunately they're not often found in the eastern part of the state. Given how often I go to the central part of the state in winter, I've had plenty of opportunities to see them, and I also have had some very cool encounters with nesting Prairie Falcons on the western edge of the state.

My favorite photo has to be the one below. I was birding the Fort Pierre National Grasslands in central South Dakota in January of 2019 when I saw a Prairie Falcon buzzing through a flock of Snow Buntings. As I got out of my car and started watching, the bunting flock swirled towards me, and the Prairie Falcon followed. The shot below captures the little nod he gave to me as he flew over, and then continued his pursuit of the Snow Buntings.

Prairie Falcon - Falco mexicanus


Prairie Falcon 1	Prairie Falcon 2	Prairie Falcon 3	Prairie Falcon 4
February 16th, 2004	November 27th, 2011	November 27th, 2011	January 4th, 2008
Near Kennebec, South Dakota	Fort Pierre National Grasslands, South Dakota	Fort Pierre National Grasslands, South Dakota	Fort Pierre National Grasslands, South Dakota
Profile of falcon on top of a telephone pole	Falcon taking flight on a bright sunny day	Falcon in flight with blue sky background	Bird sitting on crossbar of a telephone pole

Prairie Falcon 5	Prairie Falcon 6	Prairie Falcon 7	Prairie Falcon 8
July 23rd, 2011	July 23rd, 2011	July 23rd, 2011	July 23rd, 2011
North Cave Hills, South Dakota	North Cave Hills, South Dakota	North Cave Hills, South Dakota	North Cave Hills, South Dakota
Portrait of a juvenile falcon	Juvenile falcon on rocky cliff near nest	Immature bird perched near nest site	Young falcon perched on rocky cliff near nest

Prairie Falcon 9	Prairie Falcon 10	Prairie Falcon 11	Prairie Falcon 12
July 23rd, 2011	July 23rd, 2011	July 23rd, 2011	July 23rd, 2011
North Cave Hills, South Dakota	North Cave Hills, South Dakota	North Cave Hills, South Dakota	North Cave Hills, South Dakota
First-year bird looking over its shoulder	First-year falcon on rocky cliff	Closeup of a juvenile falcon near nest site	Juvenile falcon near the nest site

Prairie Falcon 13	Prairie Falcon 14	Prairie Falcon 15	Prairie Falcon 16
July 23rd, 2011	July 23rd, 2011	July 23rd, 2011	July 23rd, 2011
North Cave Hills, South Dakota	North Cave Hills, South Dakota	North Cave Hills, South Dakota	North Cave Hills, South Dakota
Young bird perched of edge of cliff	Head shot of juvenile falcon near nest	Juvenile first-year bird near nest site	Juvenile first-year bird near nest site

Prairie Falcon 17	Prairie Falcon 18	Prairie Falcon 19	Prairie Falcon 20
July 23rd, 2011	July 23rd, 2011	July 23rd, 2011	July 23rd, 2011
North Cave Hills, South Dakota	North Cave Hills, South Dakota	North Cave Hills, South Dakota	North Cave Hills, South Dakota
Immature bird on edge of cliff	Juvenile first-year bird near nest site	Juvenile first-year bird near nest site	Juvenile first-year bird near nest site

Prairie Falcon 21	Prairie Falcon 22	Prairie Falcon 23	Prairie Falcon 24
July 23rd, 2011	July 23rd, 2011	July 23rd, 2011	November 27th, 2011
North Cave Hills, South Dakota	North Cave Hills, South Dakota	North Cave Hills, South Dakota	Fort Pierre National Grasslands, South Dakota
Immature bird on edge of cliff	Habitat and nest site area with juvenile bird	Nesting cliff of Prairie Falcon with whitewash	Adult prairie falcon perched on telephone line

Prairie Falcon 25	Prairie Falcon 26	Prairie Falcon 27	Prairie Falcon 28
December 6th, 2014	January 18th, 2015	January 18th, 2015	January 9th, 2019
Near Presho, South Dakota	Jones County, South Dakota	Jones County, South Dakota	Fort Pierre National Grasslands, South Dakota
Adult prairie falcon in flight on sunny day	Mature bird perched on telephone pole	Mature bird perched on telephone pole with stare towards camera	Prairie Falcon hunting Snow Buntings (OOF in background)

Prairie Falcon 29	Prairie Falcon 30	Prairie Falcon 31
January 9th, 2019	July 12th, 2019	December 19th, 2019
Fort Pierre National Grasslands, South Dakota	Roby Canyon, Black Hills, South Dakota	Fort Pierre National Grasslands, South Dakota
As good of a photo of a Prairie Falcon in flight as I will ever get	Massive nest site of Prairie Falcon, using old Golden Eagle nest	Adult falcon perched on top of a telephone pole