Falcons and Caracaras (Falconidae)

Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus) - HBW 2, p. 274

French: Faucon gerfaut German: Gerfalke Spanish: Halcón Gerifalte
Other common names: Gyr, Jerfalcon

Taxonomy: Falco rusticolus Linnaeus, 1758, Sweden.
Forms superspecies with F. cherrug, and perhaps also F. biarmicus and F. jugger and possibly even F. mexicanus. Taxonomy very complicated; usually considered monotypic, but highly polymorphic. Sometimes considered polytypic, normally with four races, based mainly on colour frequencies: rusticolus (Europe); obsoletus (Asia, parts of North America); candicans (high Arctic of North America, Greenland); and finally islandus (Iceland), the most isolated, uniform and distinctive of these forms, which would probably be most valid race. Morph .. View all taxonomy...

Distribution: Circumpolar, occupying Arctic regions of Eurasia, North America, Greenland and Iceland; some birds move farther S for winter.