Red-footed falcon (1 Viewer)

Yesterday evening about 18:20, I had just got out of the car at home when a grey falcon with red rear end flew above my head, my first thought was Hobby as i know they have red 'trousers' as it were. I've had a look through my Collin's guide and see Hobby is streaky underneath with white throat, this bird was all grey with a red-rear, the only other bird I could see that looked like it was male red-footed falcon.

I have now convinced myself it was red-footed falcon as I can't find any thing else that matches the bird I've seen.

Can anyone suggest more common birds that look like red-footed falcon that a beginner like me could have confused it with?

If not I'm putting it down a red-footed falcon

Well I don’t know if you are aware but there have been some reports of RF Falcon in the country over the last few days. The most likely Falcons are obviously Kestrel and Hobby. A few Red Footed Falcon reports probably relate to misidentifications of one of these two species. Red Footed Falcons do hover like Kestrels when hunting. If you have ruled out both of these then it’s not impossible. The description sounds ok for a male if you are certain of what you saw.

http://www.birdsofbritain.co.uk/bird-guide/red-footed-falcon.htm
A picture of the flight profile of this bird is here.

Rich

Hi Jeff,
Assuming that you can be sure that the underparts were actually uniform grey(Hobbies can look dark underneath given poor views,but the head pattern should still have been obvious,and I wonder if it would be possible for the light conditions to make a Hobby's underparts look grey and yet leave the red vent unaffected?),then I think that this was indeed a male Red-footed Falcon!
The species is unmistakable when seen well:I have yet to see one over here,where we haven't had one since 1997,but have seen lots of them of all ages in Bulgaria in Sep.99.
Well done!!!
Harry H

Thanks both for the replies,

The evening was bright and sunny and the bird flew house height overhead. Clear views were had of the underside and shape of the bird, but only for a few seconds.

99.9% sure Red-footed falcon after looking through the Collin's guide to birds, but there will always be that 0.1% doubt.

Added to Jeff's list

Red-footed falcon Falco vespertinus :t:

Put down a detailed description of exactly what you saw, no more, no less, together with the time, date, distance from the bird, etc., and send it to your County Recorder.

It certainly sounds like one to me, and there's been several around recently, so the possibility of it being accepted by your recorder is good.

Michael