So I was thinking of taking a two level dip into this class and the archetype appealed to me as flavorful.
Falconer archetype page
At 1st level, a falconer earns the trust and companionship of a bird of prey. The bird can be of any type of large hunting or scavenging bird (even a vulture). This ability functions like the druid animal companion ability (which is part of the nature bond class feature), but the falconer must take the bird animal companion, and that companion has only half the normal hit points.
However I am unsure what the limitations are on this? It mentions a "bird of prey" it also says it can by "any type of large hunting or scavenging bird" so to me that sounds like any bird of prey listed under the "bird" type for druid/ranger animal companions.
Here is where I viewed the list of "Birds"
However it also says, "but the falconer must take the bird animal companion" which leaves me wondering if it is simply limited to bird or the several detailed mentions above of a bird of prey?
I am clearly unconcerned with the power of the companion in combat as this will only be a two level dip but I wanted to be sure what my limitations where regarding it.
Best Answer
The Falconer page states:
Since the system doesn't specify exactly what qualifies as a bird of prey aside from telling you it can be any kind of large hunting or scavenging bird but that it does allow you to take a vulture, The likely course of action would be that the Ranger would have access to any Bird type animal companion. So you could take an Eagle, a Falcon, a Roc, or a vulture, provided it had the Bird sub-type.
At 4th level when Ranger would normally get an animal companion, instead your animal companion would level up and would have 100% of its HP instead of the half it starts off with.