A single bird made SR1.4 m in Riyadh this month and the season's auction grew sales by a quarter, in a market with one region of buyers, a CITES permit on every transfer and an asset that is worth most on the day it is sold.1 2High
Context for Liquidity, not a rating. Definitions → · Themes covering this market are listed at the end of the brief.
First entry. The 2026 International Falcon Breeders Auction's top lot was a Canadian-bred three-quarter gyr Super White at SR1.3 m ($346,000), the second-highest in the auction's history; a wild-taken Mongolian falcon then set a record of SR1.4 m at the Saudi International Falcons and Hunting Exhibition in October. The all-time auction record remains SR1.75 m ($467,000), 2021.1 2
The market is real and growing, and it is one market: Gulf falconers, bidding in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi between August and November, for birds that will hunt or race that winter. Price discovery exists for three months a year and is broadcast live, but there is no bid outside the region and none outside the season. The asset is alive, depreciates after its first moult, can die of aspergillosis or a collision, and cannot cross a border without a CITES permit and, in the Gulf, a falcon passport. Title is a ring number and a certificate, which is adequate; custody means a falconer, a mews and a hospital. A buyer is acquiring a season of sport, and the record prices are for the rarest colour of the rarest hybrid, which the breeder can make again next year.
The Σ grade is ΣΟΦΙΑ's opinion of how practical the asset is to hold. Not a view on return. How it is judged →
Falconry is on UNESCO's intangible-heritage list and the Gulf states have built a modern market around it: licensed breeders, televised auctions, falcon hospitals, racing with seven-figure prize funds and a conservation apparatus for the wild populations. This page covers the auction record, what a buyer is actually paying for, the regulatory structure that makes the bird a tradeable asset, the ways it loses value, and what to watch. No prices are carried as live values.
Three seasons of the Saudi Falcons Club's auction, and the exhibition that follows it.
| Season | Sales | Birds sold | Top lot |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 (20 days) | >SR10 m | 866 | Ultra White gyr hybrid, Pacific Northwest Falcons (US), SR400,000; 56 farms, 19 countries5 |
| 2025 (21 days) | >SR13 m (+23%) | 1,103 (+27%) | Super White pure gyr chick, RX farm (US), SR1.2 m ($320,000); 67 farms, 23 countries3 4 |
| 2026 | — | — | Three-quarter gyr Super White, Jim Wilson Falcons (Canada), SR1.3 m ($346,000), to Nova Falcon; bidding from SR200,000; a pure gyr chick from the same farm SR150,0001 |
| Exhibition, Oct 2026 | — | — | Wild-taken Mongolian falcon, SR1.4 m, exhibition record2 |
The series is short and steep: the top lot tripled from 2024 to 2025 and the auction's volume grew by a quarter, with sessions broadcast live on television and streamed. The all-time record, SR1.75 m in 2021, predates the current growth; the 2026 top lot is the second-highest ever. The buyer's own account of the SR1.3 m bird, "rare birds are priceless", is the market's valuation method stated plainly.1 3 5 High
Species, cross, colour, sex, age and the season ahead.
| Variable | What it means | Price effect |
|---|---|---|
| Species and cross | Pure gyrfalcon (largest, Arctic); gyr × peregrine ("shaheen") and gyr × saker hybrids at half, three-quarter, seven-eighths gyr | Pure and high-fraction gyr highest; hybrids bred for heat tolerance and racing speed |
| Colour morph | White, Super White, Ultra White gyr plumage; dark and silver below | The record lots are all white morphs; the premium is aesthetic and cultural, not sporting1 5 |
| Sex | Females ("falcons") a third larger than males ("tiercels") | Females higher for hunting; males favoured in some racing classes |
| Age | Chick of the year (farkh) sold before first moult; intermewed birds after | Chicks command the premium; a trained adult with a racing record is a different asset |
| Origin | Captive-bred with closed ring and CITES certificate; or wild-taken under quota (hur) | Wild-taken prized by traditionalists; captive-bred the only route for export and for most buyers |
| Purpose | Hunting houbara in the winter season; or racing (400 m sprints, telwah) with prize funds | Racing bloodlines increasingly bred and priced separately |
The bird is sold in August for a season that runs to March. Its value to the buyer is sporting and social: a hunting trip, a race entry, a place in a majlis. The breeder's value is the pair that produced it, which is why the supply side looks like breeding stallions and the demand side like a season ticket. Hyp
Why a falcon can be sold at all.
All falcons are listed under CITES: peregrine and gyrfalcon on Appendix I, saker on Appendix II. A captive-bred bird from a registered breeder may be traded internationally with a CITES certificate of captive breeding and a closed leg ring fitted as a chick; wild-taken birds may move only under national export quota. The UAE introduced a falcon passport in 2002, since adopted across the GCC, which records the bird, its ring and microchip and its owner and permits travel with the falconer; Saudi Arabia's National Center for Falcons and the Saudi Falcons Club (2017) regulate the domestic market, the auctions and the breeding-farm licences.3 6 Med
| Participant | Role | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Breeding farms | c. 67 at the 2025 auction from 23 countries; Canada, US, UK, Germany, Spain and Gulf farms | Hybrids by artificial insemination; white gyr lines are proprietary1 3 |
| Saudi Falcons Club | Organises the Breeders Auction, the exhibition, the King Abdulaziz Falconry Festival and a 122-day season | The market's exchange and regulator in one3 |
| Abu Dhabi (ADIHEX, Emirates Falconers' Club, Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital) | The other hub: exhibition sales, hospital, release programme | Hospital treats several thousand birds a year Med |
| Racing bodies | Fazza Championships (Dubai), President's Cup (Abu Dhabi), Saudi festival races | Prize funds in the tens of millions of riyals and dirhams create a secondary demand for speed Med |
| Conservation funds | Mohamed bin Zayed Raptor Conservation Fund; Sheikh Zayed release programme; IAF | Wild saker and houbara populations; the legitimacy of the whole market |
Most of it, in the ordinary course.
| Risk | Mechanism | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| Depreciation | A chick's premium is gone after the first season; an intermewed bird is valued on performance | None; this is the asset's nature |
| Mortality and injury | Aspergillosis, bumblefoot, collisions, heat; a hunting bird lost on a flight | Telemetry; falcon hospitals in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha, Riyadh; insurance limited |
| Paperwork | Bird without matching ring, certificate and passport cannot travel or be resold legitimately | Buy only at licensed auction or from registered farms |
| Single buyer base | Demand is Gulf falconers in season; a change in houbara hunting access (Pakistan, Central Asia permits) or in racing prize funds reprices everything | None available to a holder |
| Supply response | White gyr morphs are bred to order; a record price is an instruction to the farms | Scarcity is engineered and temporary |
| Export controls | CITES Appendix I; national bans on wild take; diplomatic exposure of hunting trips | Captive-bred with full documentation only |
Custody is the working life of a falconer: daily weighing, feeding, flying, a mews, transport in the heat, and veterinary care that the Gulf has built world-class hospitals to provide. It is the second-heaviest custody burden on this site after racehorses, with the difference that a horse at least has a residual value as breeding stock; a falcon's residual is the next season. Med
Recurring data points that move this analysis. No live values are carried on this page.
| Indicator | Source & cadence | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| International Falcon Breeders Auction results | Saudi Falcons Club; Aug–Sep, nightly, broadcast | Volume, farms, countries, top lots; the only price series |
| Saudi International Falcons and Hunting Exhibition; ADIHEX | Oct; Sep | Wild-taken and dealer sales; the exhibition record |
| King Abdulaziz Falconry Festival and Fazza race results | Dec–Jan | Which bloodlines win; racing demand |
| CITES export quotas for saker (Mongolia, Kazakhstan) and Appendix changes | CITES, annual; CoP triennial | Legal wild supply |
| Houbara hunting permits in Pakistan and Central Asia | National announcements, autumn | The purpose of most of the birds |
| Licensed breeding farms and new hybrid lines | Saudi Falcons Club; farm announcements | Supply response to record prices |
| Falcon hospital caseloads | Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital, annual | Mortality and the size of the owned population |
Numbered in order of first citation. Saudi Falcons Club statements via Gulf and Saudi press for the auction; CITES for the regulatory frame; structural detail on racing and hospitals from general reporting and tagged. Sources 9–11 added 23 Oct 2026 for the holding-horizon and exit-depth fields.