No other diurnal bird of prey except its larger relative the peregrine ranges as widely in the New World. It is found from coast to coast and from northwestern Canada and central Alaska south through the two American continents to Tierra del Fuego. Adaptable, it is impartial to rural roadsides, open country, prairies, deserts, woodland edges, farmlands and even cities. It escapes persecution, to which the larger birds of prey are subject, by virtue of its size, being hardly larger than a jay. Perched on a wire, it looks somewhat like an oversized swallow. Even the slim pointed wings suggest those of the swallow.

Unlike most other day-flying birds of prey, it does not build a nest of sticks in a tree, nor does it lay its eggs on a cliff ledge. It seeks a cavity, usually excavated by a flicker, in some isolated tree or pole. In the desert, a woodpecker hole in a saguaro or a hole in a cliff will do. In the western foothills, where holes are scarce it may appropriate a magpie nest. Even a building in the center of town may offer a nest site.”