Attack behaviour in naive gyrfalcons is modelled by the same guidance law as in peregrine falcons, but at a lower guidance gain

The aerial hunting behaviours of birds are strongly influenced by flight morphology and ecology, but little is known of how this relates to the behavioural algorithms guiding flight. Here, we used GPS loggers to record the attack trajectories of captive-bred gyrfalcons (Falco rusticolus) during their maiden flights against robotic aerial targets, which we compared with existing flight data from peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus). The attack trajectories of both species were well modelled by a proportional navigation (PN) guidance law, which commands turning in proportion to the angular rate of the line-of-sight to target, at a guidance gain N. However, naive gyrfalcons operate at significantly lower values of N than peregrine falcons, producing slower turning and a longer path to intercept. Gyrfalcons are less manoeuvrable than peregrine falcons, but physical constraint is insufficient to explain the lower values of N we found, which may reflect either the inexperience of the individual birds or ecological adaptation at the species level. For example, low values of N promote the tail-chasing behaviour that is typical of wild gyrfalcons and which apparently serves to tire their prey in a prolonged high-speed pursuit. Likewise, during close pursuit of typical fast evasive prey, PN will be less prone to being thrown off by erratic target manoeuvres at low guidance gain. The fact that low-gain PN successfully models the maiden attack flights of gyrfalcons suggests that this behavioural algorithm is embedded in a guidance pathway ancestral to the clade containing gyrfalcons and peregrine falcons, though perhaps with much deeper evolutionary origins.

Automated summary

Birds' aerial hunting behaviors are influenced by flight morphology and ecology, and this study found that gyrfalcons and peregrine falcons exhibit similar attack trajectories guided by a proportional navigation law. However, gyrfalcons operate at lower values of the guidance gain N, resulting in slower turning and longer paths to intercept compared to peregrine falcons. The lower N values in gyrfalcons may not be solely explained by physical constraints, suggesting potential factors such as individual experience or species-level ecological adaptation.