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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Kestrel, Shetland 01/05/2017 (05/01/2017 US) (1 Viewer)

RecoveringScot said:
I thought so too, but have very little experience (odd birds on migration in Turkey, always identified by a local expert).

Cheers
Click to expand...

I guess the tail colour is partly an artefact as you cannot see tiny barring from that angle, face with no super, chevrons on scaps and coverts and pale claws just perfect for Lesser
 
Yes it is:

Pale claws, and a different, more featureless facial expression.

Not a 2cy male of course, as they will have attained adult mantle.

When it comes to females, Forsman warns that only the contrast between new (adult) mantle feathers and worn (juvenile) upperwing are diagnostic, and this may be difficult to tell.

With that caveat, I would guess an adult female here, as I find no such contrast on this cutie.

Congratulations!

Peter
 
tconzemi said:
I guess the tail colour is partly an artefact as you cannot see tiny barring from that angle, face with no super, chevrons on scaps and coverts and pale claws just perfect for Lesser
Click to expand...

Many thanks. I hadn't picked up on the chevrons, but going back to William Clark's Field Guide (which is the book I found most useful), there is indeed a difference in the shape of these markings as illustrated, being thinner and less blotchy in Lesser, which matches this bird.

The more I look at the head the better it looks.

Cheers
 
P.Sunesen said:
Yes it is:

Pale claws, and a different, more featureless facial expression.

Not a 2cy male of course, as they will have attained adult mantle.

When it comes to females, Forsman warns that only the contrast between new (adult) mantle feathers and worn (juvenile) upperwing are diagnostic, and this may be difficult to tell.

With that caveat, I would guess an adult female here, as I find no such contrast on this cutie.

Congratulations!

Peter
Click to expand...

Lucky guess by me, I would say. No skill involved.

Cheers
 
This bird, photographed in Buckinghamshire on 21/9/10, was submitted to the BBRC as a Lesser Kestrel but was rejected even though they accepted that the bird had pale claws.
 

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David Ferguson said:
This bird, photographed in Buckinghamshire on 21/9/10, was submitted to the BBRC as a Lesser Kestrel but was rejected even though they accepted that the bird had pale claws.
Click to expand...

Interesting, but any ID of either species will take in several factors, as individual birds may show freak characters as a one-off.

Cheers
 
David Ferguson said:
This bird, photographed in Buckinghamshire on 21/9/10, was submitted to the BBRC as a Lesser Kestrel but was rejected even though they accepted that the bird had pale claws.
Click to expand...

so many waders show wrong leg colour due to mud, this Kestrels has bold moustache, super, wrong coverts etc.
 
I'd contacted Craig Nisbet re this bird, and have in return received a few more photos, most are very similar to the original but this one (cropped to fit BF limits, but otherwise not altered) shows a front view. Please do not download, copy or distribute this image, which is copyright Craig Nisbet, and posted with permission.
 

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Wowzers.

Funny thing - I stopped to check out an exhausted female Kestrel at the roadside here in Shetland last weekend, and was saying as I got out of the car "why can't this be a Lesser?"... And, of course, it wasn't!

ce
 
CornishExile said:
Wowzers.

Funny thing - I stopped to check out an exhausted female Kestrel at the roadside here in Shetland last weekend, and was saying as I got out of the car "why can't this be a Lesser?"... And, of course, it wasn't!

ce
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I have rather light-heartedly tweeted North Ron Bird Obs., as per their blog they recorded 'a single Kestrel' on the 30th April, asking if it was a female. Well, you never know.

Cheers
 
RecoveringScot said:
I'd contacted Craig Nisbet re this bird, and have in return received a few more photos, most are very similar to the original but this one (cropped to fit BF limits, but otherwise not altered) shows a front view. Please do not download, copy or distribute this image, which is copyright Craig Nisbet, and posted with permission.
Click to expand...

If I'd only seen this photo, the markedly smaller spots on the underparts, are at a variance with Common Kestrel.

Peter
 
P.Sunesen said:
If I'd only seen this photo, the markedly smaller spots on the underparts, are at a variance with Common Kestrel.

Peter
Click to expand...


Quite, in a thumbnail the whole front is remarkably pale - reminded me more of fem. Red-backed Shrike!

The russet head, mentioned by Forsman, shows well here too.

Cheers
 
P.Sunesen said:
If I'd only seen this photo, the markedly smaller spots on the underparts, are at a variance with Common Kestrel.

Peter
Click to expand...

This pattern of streaking in females is mentioned by Corso in the BB paper, in most birds barely reaching the belly or trousers, and where it does much lighter and thinner, only 'a few' having bolder streaking on the breast or belly like Common Kestrel. I am now firmly of the opinion that this is a Lesser Kestrel. All the key points are present.

Cheers
 
Since there has been some comment on Twitter about the paleness of the claws (which in LK according to Corso (2001) are not always 'white' but typically pale greyish with a slight yellowish tinge, and occasionally darker) I include here a blowup of the relevant area.

The claws appear to fit Corso's description, and the blackish shadowing appears to be either a photo artefact affecting the central claws, or an effect of the light. The outermost claws on either side are clearly medium greyish, and not black. The toes themselves also appear a richer orangey yellow (a point mentioned by the Andalucia Bird Society in a comparison page, though they say 'ochreous' which to me would mean with a slight greeny tinge) than Common Kestrel, in which they are typically pale clear yellow, like the cere. Photo used with permission.
 

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A crop from another, third photo, very similar to the original, but where the bird has turned to look at the photographer. Note the fine streaking on the crown, much less coarse than that of CK, and the whitish area just above the bill. Also the shorter moustaches, each starting from directly underneath the eye, whereas in CK they start slightly in front of the eye (a point mentioned by the Andalucia Bird Society comparison page, and confirmed by some shots of both species I have seen online, though remarkably few shots of these species are portrait close-ups, as I feel people tend to think the in-flight characters are a surer way of distinguishing them). Again this part-photo is reproduced with permission from Craig Nisbet and is copyright by him.
 

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