Amur or Red-footed Falcon (Slovenia)? (1 Viewer)

[Mountain Owl]

Greetings.
Few days ago, I just received a questions about the attached photos. I am interested in your opinions. It appears to be a specimen of Amur Falcon F. amurensis (top left). What do you think? mid May 2022, SW Slovenia
p.s. The photos have not been manipulated/tuned or changed in any way.

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

Hello,

welcome to birdforum!
Thanks for joining to alert others of this (possible) rare bird/record for Europe.

I cant answer your question with confidence. Yes, I think it might well be an Amur Flacon, but I havent seen Amur Falcon in the wild before), but there are surely others that can confirm Amur Falcon. I hope so, thanks from me, too.

I assume, that you are aware of 1cy RFF with white/whitish underparts (yes with bold streaking unlike your bird from may EDIT: I agree with you, your bird is far too early to be a 1 cy ). No offence you know.

Club300 Germany

club300.de

Club300 Germany

club300.de

Club300 Germany

club300.de

https://flic.kr/p/2nKx3GU

https://flic.kr/p/2nKBYjj

(09.09.2022, Fiener Bruch near Tucheim, NE-Germany)

No offence, but I think with such a rare bird, an aberrant RRF has to be considered. And as said, your bird is far above my paygrade.

Welcome to birdforum again!

Off topic: Club300 Germany

 

[Mountain Owl]

Hello,

welcome to birdforum!
Thanks for joining to alert others of this (possible) rare bird/record for Europe.

I cant answer your question with confidence. Yes, I think it might well be an Amur Flacon, but I havent seen Amur Falcon in the wild before), but there are surely others that can confirm Amur Falcon. I hope so, thanks from me, too.

I assume, that you are aware of 1cy RFF with white/whitish underparts (yes with bold streaking unlike your bird from may EDIT: I agree with you, your bird is far too early to be a 1 cy ). No offence you know.

Club300 Germany

club300.de

Club300 Germany

club300.de

Club300 Germany

club300.de

https://flic.kr/p/2nKx3GU

https://flic.kr/p/2nKBYjj

(09.09.2022, Fiener Bruch near Tucheim, NE-Germany)

No offence, but I think with such a rare bird, an aberrant RRF has to be considered. And as said, your bird is far above my paygrade.

Welcome to birdforum again!

Off topic: Club300 Germany

Thank you for the welcome to the forum, your opinion and quick reply.

Don't worry. No offence. I am here to discuss, identify and learn something

I agree about the possibility of an aberrant individual with a strange moulting strategy or unusual plumage variability. However, I grew up 400 m from the colony of RFFs. I spent more than a decade watching, capturing and generally researching this species in northern Serbia. Still, I have never seen an RfF juvenile/second-year individual with a dark (bluish-grey) crown colour, white (pale) breast and whitish underwing/shoulder. I also tried looking for a similar photo of RFF on the Internet, but without success. Of course, we need clarification on this questionable bird (I have no experience with AF). Still, I can't find any or maybe one morphological character which perfectly matches an RFF. Thus, my opinion leans more towards an Amur Falcon.
Otherwise, strange bird is in its second calendar year, and its underparts are little bit over-exposed (by the camera).

I hope more useful comments will come and we will successfully solve the puzzle.

Cheers!

 

[Brian J Small]

Mountian Owl

What features make you suspect Amur Falcom. Maybe the apparent white underwing coverts?

These are often visible on 2cy Red-footed. See this article to help with features to differentiate the two.

http://www.ornitologiasiciliana.it/pdf/Falcoamurensis&vespertinusPiumaggio_Corso.pdf

Brian

 

[tconzemi]

Second calendar year male, very pale below with mixture of grey and some bleached juvenile streaks. Amur males at this age are pretty similar but there is nothing suggesting other than default Red-footed in these pictures (thanks Brian for the perfect paper on this)

 

[Butty]

What features make you suspect Amur Falcom.

The OP has given them.

 

[Brian J Small]

The OP has given them.

Where?

 

[tconzemi]

Where?

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