Saker falcon

Its large size and its presence in arid environments have made the saker falcon, over the centuries, the most important hunting bird of Arab falconers. Falconers prefer females because of their larger size: more than 90% of the saker falcons seen in the Gulf states are females, and the number trapped in 2004 was estimated at between 6,825 and 8,400 birds, most of them young females.

The saker falcon is a large, powerful falcon, intermediate in size between the gyrfalcon and the peregrine falcon. Its back is brown and its head paler, it has whitish eyebrows, and its underparts are streaked. It measures between 43 and 60 cm in length.