Laggar falcon adult male living on the fence

The laggar falcon is a mid-sized bird of prey which occurs in the Indian subcontinent. It resembles the lanner falcon but is darker overall, and has blackish “trousers” (tibiotarsus feathers). Fledglings have an almost entirely dark underside, and first-year subadult birds still retain much dark on the belly. This falcon mostly feeds on birds, including doves and gamebirds, but principally passerines; also wide variety of small mammals, including bats; reptiles.

Laggar Falcons used to be the most common falcons in the region, but numbers have declined markedly in recent times and today it is probably nowhere a common species anymore. The main threats are the intensification of pesticide use in the region and use as a decoy to trap large falcons.It is classified as Near Threatened by IUCN.