Falcon Cam Shows Peregrine Overtake Downhill Mountain Bike Champ [Video]

A falcon cam captured the peregrine falcon’s eye view of the race between downhill mountain biking champion Gee Atherton and the world’s fastest bird. That video was posted online Tuesday, so check it out below.

The first video of the staged race between man and bird was posted Thursday on the Redbull channel. It quickly went viral, but, in case you haven’t seen it yet, I’ve posted that one downstairs too.

Yes, it was staged with a trained falconry bird, but the breathtaking footage captures a hunt set in the mountain landscape of Wales in the United Kingdom. Downhill mountain biker Gee Atherton puts the bait on his head and then attempts to outrace the speedy peregrine falcon.

It’s a race that a mere mortal man is doomed to lose — even with the help of all the Redbull on the planet.

It seems like only a few weeks ago that I chuckled at some soldiers on the India/Pakistan border who thought a falcon they found was wearing a spy camera. A completely artificial bird drone that might also carry spy cameras also fluttered into the news a couple of days ago.

Cameras are now so small that they obviously don’t slow down the peregrine falcon’s 200 mile per hour speed in the slightest. Hmm. You guys worry about the NSA. I’ll worry about that flock of migrating falcons overhead.

By the way, if you’re more interested in the natural wild behavior of the birds, check out some of the action on various cool peregrine falcon cams showing their nests from around the country.

Here is the video of the peregrine falcon’s successful race against the mountain biker. Yes, it’s blurry, but the bird was going very, very fast and carrying a special falcon camera with a very, very small lens.

Here’s the high definition version of the falcon race from the point of view of the Redbull camera crew:

What started as a simple way to look into nature’s secrets seems to have applications ranging from spy tech to advertising publicity stunts. So what’s next for the falcon cams?

[peregrine falcon photo by Michael “Mike” L. Baird bairdphotos.com via Creative Commons and Flickr]