A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World’s Smartest Birds of Prey

by Jonathan Meiburg

the crested caracaras who unnerved Darwin in Patagonia are said to spread wildfires by dropping burning sticks in dry grass, and feasting on the ensuing stream of refugees.

peregrines have the fastest visual processing speed measured in any animal, and their eyes are so sharp that they could read the headline of a newspaper from a mile away. John Alec Baker noted that a human with eyes in the same proportion to its skull as a peregrine would have eyes that measure three inches across and weigh four pounds each.