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Big Falcon ID (1 Viewer)

Joern Lehmhus

Well-known member
Hi all,
saw this last June in southern Germany sitting on a pole at the roadside. Luckily I could stop there and make a sketch; the bird sat there about 20 min and did not fear cars (distance to my car about 5m!!). Passing cars were also ignored despite the wind they made was moving the birds feathers. But when I got out of the car , thinking it might be an escaped falconers bird despite having no jessies or ring; it abruptly took off, passing me in about 3m distance, then flying low and fast over the fields and then suddenly at a distance of about 200m , near a hilltop, it started to fly up and circle higher and higher.

It was a big brown falcon about the size of a big peregrine but perhaps even slightly bigger.
Upper side was brown, the primaries slightly darker than the rest of the upper side.
tail was longer than wings, densely banded, not very well to see on the upper side, better from below
legs were greyish-blue, also the skin around the base of the bill (how do you call this in english? "Wachshaut"in german)
breast and belly with dark brown spots on a light coloration, the "leg feathers brown with darker brown spots, which were not clearly bordered.
from below, in the flying bird the primaries were also banded and with darker tips; and the secondaries were darker than the primaries.

The "beard stripe" below the eye was thin and the area behind , was light coloured as well as the throat. there was also a light stripe above the eye, extending into a light nape (but that stripe and nape were not as light as the throat)

I thought this is a saker, and probably an escape as we don´t have the species in germany normally; but with the discussions about hybrid falcons id´d like to hear other`s opinions.

Joern
 

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