Three Peregrine Falcon subspecies live in North America. Each subspecies shares the scientific name Falco peregrinus, the latter Latin word meaning "wanderer."

• F. p. tundrius name indicates where it lives. It prefers the rocky crags across a wide arc of tundra from the Mackenzie Delta to Hudson Bay and Ungava, and north to Baffin Island.
• F. p. pealei honors Philadelphia's Titian R. Peale, a 19th century artist and taxidermist. Birds of this subspecies, the largest and darkest of the North American Peregrines, live in the Queen Charlotte Islands and Moore Island off the British Columbia mainland.
• F. p. anatum's last name means "duck eater," a Latin acknowledgement of its early American name: duck hawk. (The Rochester Peregrines are in this subspecies.) The anatum is also known as the Continental or American Peregrine. In its pre-pesticide prime, the anatum subspecies lived in aeries in mountains and in cliffs from central Alaska across north-central Canada to central Mexico.

Recent evidence suggests that some urban Peregrines do not migrate during the winter. Others may travel only a short distance from their home territories. Researchers speculate this is because pigeons and other city-dwelling birds provide an abundant food source year round in their nesting locations.