--- title: "The Revival of the Aplomado Falcon" description: "Learn more about pest birds and animals and how to protect your business or home - Hawkeye offers solutions that work!" url: "https://www.falconryusa.com/blog/the-revival-of-the-aplomado-falcon" date: "2026-09-09T22:16:25+00:00" language: "en-GB" --- ## Breadcrumbs [Home](https://www.falconryusa.com/) > [Blog](https://www.falconryusa.com/blog) > The Revival of the Aplomado Falcon # The Revival of the Aplomado Falcon Details Written by: Dan Frankian Published: 09 September 2026 There are several well-known wildlife reintroduction projects in the United States. People are often quick to point to the wildly successful captive breeding programs of the California condor (*Gymnogyps californianus*), or the 1995 reintroduction of the gray wolf (*Canis lupus*) to Yellowstone National Park. However, many may not know that extensive species reintroduction efforts are still in progress today. One such example is The Peregrine Fund’s aplomado falcon (*Falco femoralis*) restoration project out of south Texas. Thanks to this project, these little raptors that have historically faced extirpation from their northernmost ranges in the Chihuahuan Desert now have established nesting pairs in the United States. The future for these pairs may still remain uncertain, but the project to return them to their historical ranges has made one thing clear: the path to success in conservation is rarely linear.  ## The Aplomado Falcon: A Natural History The aplomado falcon is a small raptor ranging from southern Texas and New Mexico all the way to the southern horn of South America. As the name would imply, aplomado falcons belong to the family *Falconidae*alongside the peregrine falcon (*Falco peregrinus*) and roughly 65 other related species spanning the globe. Due to its wide range in the Americas, the aplomado falcon has 3 recognized subspecies: *F. femoralis septentrionalis*of the southern United States and northern Mexico, *F. femoralis femoralis*of southern Central America and east of the Andes, and *F. femoralis pinchinchae*west of the Andes. While the populations found in southern Central America and South America are very widespread, the northernmost subspecies found in the southern United States and Mexico (*F. femoralis septentrionalis*) was previously extirpated from much of its historic range in the Chiahuahuan Desert. To understand why only this population has suffered, it is critical to understand this species’ behavior and biology. Aplomado falcons are slender-bodied falcons easily recognized by their striking black-and-white facial stripes, heavily banded wings, and rust-colored unders. These birds are not only distinct in appearance, but in behavior as well; these little raptors are fast-flying and can often be spotted in open country perched upon fencelines or scaring up flocks of songbirds. Most of an aplomado’s diet consists of small birds, larger invertebrates, and occasional small mammals, but these birds are notably opportunistic. Populations in South America have even [been observed hunting alongside maned wolves (](https://academic.oup.com/condor/article-abstract/99/1/201/5126587)[*Chrysocyon brachyurus*](https://academic.oup.com/condor/article-abstract/99/1/201/5126587)[)](https://academic.oup.com/condor/article-abstract/99/1/201/5126587) and hunting along the edges of agricultural and grassland fires, where they utilize explosive bursts of speed to ambush fleeing birds and small mammals. From the northernmost populations in the Chihuahuan Desert to the southernmost birds of Tierra del Fuego, aplomado falcons are undeniably grassland and open country specialists. While they are certainly not the first– nor the last– species to be heavily impacted by the destruction of their natural habitat, their decline speaks of a larger disappearance of grassland ecosystems worldwide. ## A Habitat in Decline According to [a February 2026 study](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2521183123) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), grasslands worldwide are disappearing at nearly four times the rate of forests. The United States alone has lost over half of its historical grasslands, and many of the native species that inhabited them– including the aplomado falcon– are now in decline. The major driver of grassland destruction in the aplomado falcon’s native range is conversion to agriculture, the introduction of nonnative plants, and encroachment by shrub and woodland plants that alter the course of the ecosystem. Because grasslands have such naturally carbon-rich soils and collect rainwater, these ecosystems are frequently converted to agricultural use. The removal of native plants, invertebrate communities, and small animals, as well as the introduction of pesticides, also contributes to the heavy decline of species reliant on these resources. As a result, America’s grassland birds that migrate between the Great Plains and the Chihuahuan Desert [have lost over 70% of their combined populations since 1970](https://nas-national-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/audubon_north_american_grasslands_birds_report-final.pdf). Such a dramatic disappearance of the aplomado’s primary prey species and habitat in its northern ranges– as well as the northern population’s isolation from South and southern Central American populations– formed the perfect storm that saw aplomados largely eradicated from the southern United States and northern Mexico during the mid-20th century. Before conservation efforts began, the last known breeding pair of wild northern aplomado falcons was observed in Deming, New Mexico, in 1952. ## The Peregrine Fund By the time aplomado falcons had largely disappeared from the American landscape,efforts to conserve another falconid threatened in the United States– the peregrine falcon– were already underway. During the mid-20th century, American peregrine falcons also experienced a major population crash in response to the pesticide DDT, which dramatically thinned eggshells and made countless clutches of eggs in wild birds non-viable. The Peregrine Fund was founded in 1970 with a specific focus on restoring wild populations of the peregrine falcon via captive breeding and release programs, and saw dramatic success within the first decade of operation. Naturally, when the US Fish and Wildlife Service noted the disappearance of the aplomado falcon, they turned to The Peregrine Fund for assistance. The Peregrine Fund’s efforts to captive breed aplomado falcons officially began in 1987. The Peregrine Fund’s captive breeding program was remarkably successful. Within six years of beginning the program, the Peregrine Fund had bred enough birds in captivity to begin releasing pairs to the wild. Full-scale releases first began in 1993 along select habitat on Texas Gulf Coast, and it did not take long for the program to hit its first milestone. In 1995– a mere two years after releases first began– a released pair fledged the first wild-hatched aplomado falcon the United States had seen in over 40 years. ## Zero to Five Hundred: A Bumpy Road to Success The Peregrine Fund continued to captive breed and release birds in the following decades. From 1993 to 2013, the fund had released 936 aplomado falcons in south Texas. This program was deemed so successful that wild populations on the Gulf Coast were observed to be stable and breeding independently of it; as a result, the captive breeding portion of the program was shut down in 2013 while focus turned to monitoring and management of habitat. Despite the closure of the captive breeding program, however, these birds did not see universal success in all areas of release. Due to continuing habitat destruction and the encroachment of brush that allowed predators of aplomado falcons to thrive in their historic ranges, [populations reintroduced in the Chihuahuan desert continued to suffer serious declines](https://bioone.org/journals/journal-of-raptor-research/volume-47/issue-4/JRR-12-52.1/Restoring-Aplomado-Falcons-to-the-United-States/10.3356/JRR-12-52.1.full) and were unable to establish wild breeding populations. As if this was not enough, Hurricane Harvey hammered the Texas Gulf Coast in 2017, four years after The Peregrine Fund ended their captive breeding program for aplomado falcons. The resulting destruction of nesting platforms caused a devastating loss of 30% of the reintroduced population virtually overnight. While platforms were rebuilt and surviving birds continued to be monitored in the following years, Hurricane Harvey had clearly left a mark– and it was uncertain if populations would ever truly recover. The future seemed undeniably bleak for aplomado falcons in the United States following Hurricane Harvey. However, the wild pairs that survived continued to breed. In 2019, the Peregrine Fund announced that it had banded its 500th aplomado falcon nestling hatched in the United States since 1995. Prior to 1995, there had been no wild aplomado falcons hatched in the US since the last breeding pair was observed in 1952. This was an incredible achievement for a program that had seen many setbacks along the way. To this day, efforts to monitor and manage reintroduced populations continue, and wild birds have shown some promising signs of recovery. 2024 was noted to be one of the most successful years of the program, with over 50 birds hatched and new nesting pairs utilizing sites that were once devastated by Hurricane Harvey. Since this milestone, The Peregrine Fund announced in July of 2026 that it is reopening its captive breeding program in a partnership with Boise State University. ## The Continuing Threat The reintroduction of aplomado falcons to the United States has a promising future with the revival of The Peregrine Fund’s captive breeding program. However, the threats that displaced this species in the first place still remain. Many grasslands in the southern United States continue to be threatened by increasing agricultural expansion and the encroachment of brush, which have already previously complicated efforts to reintroduce aplomados to their historic range in the Chihuahuan Desert. The Peregrine Fund’s efforts to protect wild birds now include plans to partner with federal, non-government, and private landowners to restore and maintain the native habitat of aplomado falcons on the Texas Gulf Coast. While the story of the northern aplomado falcon is still being written, it contains two key takeaways: conservation begins and ends with habitat, and the work is never truly finished. *Contributing writer and researcher: Riley Sullivan* - [# Birds of Prey](https://www.falconryusa.com/tags/birds-of-prey) ## JSON-LD Schema ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://www.falconryusa.com/#/schema/Organization/base", "name": "Hawkeye Bird and Animal Control LLC", "url": "https://www.falconryusa.com/" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://www.falconryusa.com/#/schema/WebSite/base", "url": "https://www.falconryusa.com/", "name": "Hawkeye Bird and Animal Control LLC", "publisher": { "@id": "https://www.falconryusa.com/#/schema/Organization/base" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://www.falconryusa.com/#/schema/WebPage/base", "url": "https://www.falconryusa.com/blog/the-revival-of-the-aplomado-falcon", "name": "The Revival of the Aplomado Falcon", "description": "Learn more about pest birds and animals and how to protect your business or home - Hawkeye offers solutions that work!", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://www.falconryusa.com/#/schema/WebSite/base" }, "about": { "@id": "https://www.falconryusa.com/#/schema/Organization/base" }, "inLanguage": "en-GB" }, { "@type": "Article", "@id": "https://www.falconryusa.com/#/schema/com_content/article/73", "name": "The Revival of the Aplomado Falcon", "headline": "The Revival of the Aplomado Falcon", "inLanguage": "en-GB", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Dan Frankian" }, "thumbnailUrl": "images/Aplomado_Falcon.webp", "dateCreated": "2026-09-09T22:16:25+00:00", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://www.falconryusa.com/#/schema/WebPage/base" } } ] } ``` ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://www.falconryusa.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Blog", "item": "https://www.falconryusa.com/blog" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "The Revival of the Aplomado Falcon", "item": "https://www.falconryusa.com/blog/the-revival-of-the-aplomado-falcon" } ] } ```