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Bird of prey id please Algarve Portugal (1 Viewer)

The bird looks like a Kestrel and I'd make an educated guess that it's a "Lesser", but wouldn't have minded getting a better look at it.
 
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Must confess, I thought kestrel too. Wings look a tad narrow for harrier sp, but I'm happy to be convinced otherwise. Isn't there a suggestion of black fore-cheeks?
 
Head looks a bit big for any of the falcons, more like a harrier. " Swept-back" primaries and suggestions of dark wing tips and rufous markings on the underside all would seem to point to Monty's
 
Sorry but I'm still not convinced here!

All the pics I can find of any "Harrier" sp, inc these on here, all show a far more blunted wing tip than our bird.

Plus the dark wing tips with the dark terminal tail band and altogether paler look to the rest of the underparts all say Lesser Kestrel to me! Surely any Harrier with such dark primary tips and tail bar would also have some darker marking on the underparts like other bars on the tail/secondaries? Where as on a Lesser Kestrel this would be pretty much standard fare for an adult male......no?

I know it's a bad photo (no insult intended) but this is genuinely what I can see.

If Ben Watkins could maybe tell us a bit more like....

1, What size was the bird (compared to anything else around)?
2, Where was the bird (town, country etc)?
 
Thats definitely a harrier, there's even a suggestion of the head pattern and its not unusual for Monties to look as pointed winged from some angles and in some modes of flight. The underwing pattern is immediately harrier like too - dark tips to primaries, barring can just be seen on the primaries of one wing, darker secondaries, plainer/darker coverts etc.

Monties for me

Jan
 
Thank you all

This bird was seen in Luz a small suburban area on the south west side of the Algarve.
Unfortunately there were no other birds around to compare it with at the time.
I am amazed at the expertise out their!!!
Great photos of the lesser Kestrel.
Thanks again
 
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