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raptor id help needed (1 Viewer)

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pattianne

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small in size, about 10 to 12 inches in length; pix taken in southern Louisiana along highway - the bird was hunting in grassy roadside area.
Just doesn't seem large enough for an osprey, but the coloring of the head and eye area is correct, I believe. Flight pattern was quick darting movements, but I can't remember the wing positions. My ID book shows several different wing positions during flight, but I didn't pay close attention to the wings during flight. White breast, dark head with dark eye area...do mississippi kites have that coloration, also?
 

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Doesn't look like Ictinia (Mississippi Kite). This one has sideburns, looks like something from Falco. Too small for Osprey. At a guess, it's a Kestrel.


On second thought, it might be a Merlin, looks maybe a little too big for a Kestrel.
 
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OK, might be a falcon of some sort, most possibly not a Mississippi kite, probably not even a raptor at all, since most raptors in your area are way bigger than 12 inches. My first guess was Aplomado Falcon, but that's completely wrong, as the coloration does not look right.

You might want to try other birds, such as gulls, swifts, or swallows, or even Central America guides to see if any of those occasionally visit Louisiana.
 
Bluetail said:
Surely Merlin doesn't have a clear-cut vertical stripe behind the earcoverts? Looks like an American Kestrel to me.

Jason
Click to expand...


You're probably right, really the only good distinguisher here is the head coloration which puts this surely in Falco. In Louisiana reported as occurring are only three from Falco, as far as I know, columbarius, sparverius and peregrinus. This surely isn't peregrinus as it would have a totally more massive look, the sideburns (ear coverts) are rarely so accentuated in the Merlin (though not impossible), they are almost always distinguishable, even in a long shot in the Kestrel. It is more probable, than not, that this is a Kestrel.
 
In Photoshop, I cropped the image and sharpened it to bring out some of the details.
 

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Sure looks like sparverius to me. At 10-12", makes it waaaaaay too small for peregrinus, the only other raptor that would occur in LA with that head pattern. (Columbarius is nowhere near this boldly patterned on the head.)
 
10-12 inches only allows Merlin and American Kestrel, I'm pretty sure. Merlins are much less boldly patterned than the bird in this pic, and it sure looks like it has the 'double-tear' markings on the side of the face which is diagnostic for the Kestrel. I'm guessing female since no hint of blue can be seen.
 
I do appreciate all of your input. I'll attempt more pictures tomorrow - I have seen this bird in the same area before. Maybe a flight pic will help solve the mystery. Many thanks to all.
 
I'm not sure a flight picture will solve the case. Maybe a closer shot of the front three-quarters of the bird will help. This is due to the fact that some birds look the same from the front, but are distinguished from one another by wing patterns, etc. So a front three-quarter like your previous is tops on the wanted list.

Also, don't be afraid to try and get as close as possible to where the bird actually is. Once it starts getting nervous, that's where you should snap the picture, with the zoom all the way in.
 
I'll vote for Kestrel. That was my first impression from the photo. Patterns, size, and perching on the powerline like that all support this.
 
Falco sparverius ) American Kestrel ) without a doubt and apart from the Seychelles Kestrel is the smallest in the genus falco.
Suricate
 
The american kestrel does not have the big bad sideburns that patti's bird does... so we should wait to hear from her again if she can get better pictures.

All of the possibilities, though, have some features of patti's bird, but never all of them. This is evident in what appears to be a clean white breast and belly (no members of Falco in the USA have this feature). Also the sideburns appear to be one big solid color; the Am. Kestrel shows a "mustache" and small sideburns near the back of the head. And the eye on patti's bird appears to be too far down to be a Kestrel.

Just my 2¢.
 
Gthang,

The lobby for femoralis can be laid to rest. F. femoralis doesn't have two dark-colored down-projecting spikes on the head. It has one. The one it has projects down exactly from under the eye. Moreover, though sparverius does have a little white supercilium, in this kind of bad photo it has probably been overshadowed by all of the dark around it, whereas the femoralis has such a distinct and thick white supercilium that it would show up even in this kind of photo. More than that, it's extreme rarity.
 
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