Watch: Most expensive falcon of 2026 sells for $346,000 in Saudi Arabia

Dubai: A Canadian-bred falcon has sold for 1.3 million Saudi riyals ($346,000) at an auction north of Riyadh, making it the most expensive bird sold at this year’s event and the second-highest sale in the auction’s history.

The juvenile three-quarter gyr Super White falcon, bred by Jim Wilson Falcons in Ontario, Canada, was sold on the seventh night of the International Falcon Breeders Auction in Malham, about 65 kilometres north of the Saudi capital.

Bidding began at 200,000 riyals ($53,000) before a fierce contest among buyers pushed the final price to 1.3 million riyals.

The same Canadian farm sold another bird, a pure gyrfalcon chick, for 150,000 riyals after bidding opened at 40,000 riyals, taking the combined value of its two sales that evening to 1.45 million riyals.

“This bird is rare, and rare birds are priceless,” Shadeed Al Rashidi of Nova Falcon, the company that bought the falcon, said in a video published by the organisers.

Despite its seven-figure price, the bird fell short of the auction record. The highest price remains 1.75 million riyals ($467,000), paid in 2021 for a juvenile Ultra White three-quarter pure gyrfalcon.

Last year’s highest-priced falcon sold for 1.2 million riyals, making the latest transaction another indication of the extraordinary sums commanded by prized birds in the Gulf’s competitive falconry market.

Falconry has deep cultural roots in Saudi Arabia and across the Arabian Peninsula, but auctions such as the one in Malham have also developed into international marketplaces where specialist breeders compete for wealthy collectors and falconers.

Birds sold at the auction automatically qualify to compete in popular falcon races in Saudi Arabia, where prize money across the racing season totals about $12.5 million.

The auction brings together breeding farms, buyers and falconry enthusiasts from Saudi Arabia and abroad and will continue in Malham until 25 August.