Falcons & Caracaras - Faucons et Caracaras

This family is distinguished by its members having small to medium-sized bodies, short aquiline beaks, sharply curved talons, great eyesight, and slender, tapered wings. The arctic-dwelling Gyrfalcon is the largest North American specie. Unlike other birds of prey (like hawks, owls, and eagles), falcons use their tomial tooth — a triangular tooth on the underside of their top beak — to kill their prey, rather than their talons. The tooth is used on animals’ necks, severing their spinal cord. 

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Peregrine falcons have been clocked at reaching speeds of 242 miles per hour while diving for prey, making them the fastest recorded animal ever.