I was wondering, and looking around the Internet for answers: Why is Horus, the ancient Egyptian god, a Falcon and not an Eagle? Surely the mighty Eagle is the King of all Birds!
The thinking is this: the birds of prey are one group, so the king of birds of prey is the most powerful, the Eagle.
It turns out that that is not true. Hawks, Eagles, and buzzards are all in the same family.
Falcons are a whole separate family.
And the fastest animal on Earth is a falcon, the Peregrine Falcon.
It turns out that the differences between the two families make the falcons faster fliers. Eagles and hawks have broad wings, Falcons have narrow wings that taper to a point.
That, along with other things, makes the falcons the fastest fliers on Earth, and more agile than hawks and eagles.
Eagles are from a whole different group from falcons. And it is the falcons, not just the Peregrine Falcon, that are the fastest fliers on Earth.
And the Peregrine Falcon is not just a little, tiny bit faster than the mighty Eagle.
He's much faster.
Although the mighty Eagle is awfully fast in a dive, compared with us mere mortals!
There is a fundamental difference between the way Eagles and Hawks fly, with their broad wings for helping a large bird take off quickly (just one of many advantages to maximizing lift while increasing drag a bit, I would imagine), and the way falcons fly, with their wings that taper to a point (for minimizing drag).
(perhaps the real difference is in what they eat: Eagles and hawks go after creatures on the ground, while I know that peregrine falcons will go after other birds in the air. Perhaps falcons in general hunt birds in the air; I know hawks and eagles and owls hunt land animals. And the Peregrine Falcon will go after powerful fliers like ducks and pigeons!)
The Falcon, and not the Eagle, is the fastest flier in the world, and the fastest creature on Earth.
All hail Horus, the fastest creature on Earth!