Falcon or hawk?

[karohemd]

What's the difference?
Is one a subspecies of the other?
Both translate as the same in German, although hawk has three possibly translations.

Any ornithologists out there?

Comments

[jonnyargles.livejournal.com]

fal·con Pronunciation Key (flkn, fôl-, fôkn)
n.

Any of various birds of prey of the family Falconidae and especially of the genus Falco, having a short, curved beak and long, pointed, powerful wings adapted for swift flight.
Any of several birds of these or related species, such as hawks, trained to hunt small game.
A female bird of this type used in falconry.
A small cannon in use from the 15th to the 17th century.

hawk Pronunciation Key (hôk)
n.
Any of various birds of prey of the order Falconiformes and especially of the genera Accipiter and Buteo, characteristically having a short hooked bill and strong claws adapted for seizing.
Any of various similar birds of prey.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Right,
this would suggest that hawks are a subspecies/family/variety/whatever the correct term is of falcons.

Cheers!

[skinny-cartman.livejournal.com]

otherway round I think
says the perplexed biologist in the corner
desperately trying to remember his phylums and orders
on the other hand Pendragon (great game...) says that Falcons
are known as Hawks of the lure (as they hunt from free flight) and hawks are
hawks of the fist as they only swoop short distances to take game.
it all comes about from the odd falconry terms we have...

Matt

No...

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

Falcons' latin names start "falco". Hawks' start "accipiter".

In falconry, everything's called a hawk. "Falcon" is strictly the term for a female peregrine.

It's like lions (genus "panthera") and the snow leopard ("uncia"). They're both felidae, but one isn't a subcategory of the other.

Re: No...

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

In falconry, everything's called a hawk.

I think this sentence describes my confusion nicely. ;o)