Peregrines, a juvenile? southeast Sicily (1 Viewer)

Cava d'Ispica, 3 June

calls coming from cliff-face and all around the canyon, at first i was not sure the birds in flight were Peregrines as they seemed smaller and lighter than i'd seen previously, but the proportions indicated a kind of Peregrine

i'm thinking the bird in no.2 may be an adult, and nos. 1 and 3 show a juvenile. not sure about no. 5. I would be grateful for help.

no.6 : there are apparently clear white areas in the underwing (not evenly barred), could you help me understand what i'm seeing?

any idea which subspecies they might be, are these ssp. brookei? after discovering the complexities of identifying (common) buzzards, i now see 'peregrine' is also not straightforward

they are all juvenile Peregrines and thus of the local brookei subspecies
the white areas in the wing are just reflections
not all adult brookei are easy to identify as so often with subspecies there is a broad overlap and it is even more difficult in juveniles

Thank you for id, Tom, and what you say is very helpful.

I'm puzzled that all the photos I have of a solo bird in flight were of a juvenile.

Is it possible to tell if at least one of the 3 birds in photo no.4 is an adult? after I took this snap, one got fed.

Kinthissa said:

Is it possible to tell if at least one of the 3 birds in photo no.4 is an adult? after I took this snap, one got fed.

Click to expand...

really difficult, my guess would be the middle bird but far from sure

That's kind of you to have another look, thank you, Tom.

Kinthissa said:

I'm puzzled that all the photos I have of a solo bird in flight were of a juvenile.

Click to expand...

When the fledgings are this age, the parents spend long periods away from the scrape (although one parent or both will watch from short distance and either parent will return just to make food drops) and the ‘practice flights’ of the fledglings will be all be in the vicinity of the scrape. So it’s not surprising to often see just the juveniles flying around the nest site.

From a clutch size of up to 5 (depending on egg viability and chick mortality), there could be anything up to 2-3 days between the first fledge and the last, (which is a long time at this stage of rapid development!), it’s quite possible one or two of the chicks still need to be fed from the prey item to ensure it’s getting a share while they are practicing their launching (even though they will all be able to eat from whole prey items on their own at this stage) so if you saw a chick being fed, one of the birds (the middle one?) may well be one of the adults.

Hopefully this creates a little context for the series of photos!

Thank you, Deb. I figured the young ones stole the show and I snapped only them in the foreground. There were pleading calls from the cliff-face, also from the trees low down, so likely there were others apart from the two careering around.

photo 4 atop a cliff (my opening post): the one in the air got fed once it landed, by the bird in the middle; the middle one then flew off - this bird looks more bulky in the little video-clip I got. so I think Tom worked it out right and the middle one was the adult.

On the way out of the canyon 50 minutes later (at some 2km distance from where I took the above pix), there was a falcon which I took to be one of the Peregrines. Thick-bodied, pale and short-tailed in the first photo, but the other pix show a longer tail (I remember seeing only one bird). Paleness likely to be due to poor photography. Just thought I'd check : is the moustache more narrow and pointed than Peregrine? I'd like the experts to tell me that it is a bulky adult female Peregrine, not another falcon!

Am I right in thinking Peregrines have thicker/more robust bodies and more blunt tails than Saker and Lanner falcons?

Kinthissa said:

there was a falcon which I took to be one of the Peregrines. Thick-bodied, pale and short-tailed in the first photo, but the other pix show a longer tail (I remember seeing only one bird). Paleness likely to be due to poor photography. Just thought I'd check : is the moustache more narrow and pointed than Peregrine? I'd like the experts to tell me that it is a bulky adult female Peregrine, not another falcon!

Am I right in thinking Peregrines have thicker/more robust bodies and more blunt tails than Saker and Lanner falcons?

Click to expand...

first you are right about Saker and Lanner, and the bird is a juvenile Peregrine with short tail (looking even shorter like in pic 1 under certain angles) aged by very broad white tip of tail. And yes nobody else shows such a bold moustache as a Peregrine

It's good to clear that one, Tom, thank you! funny how I was not seeing what was before me in these photos : clean perfect feathering, even all around, with that immaculate white end to the tail ~ because I thought it was time to find an adult Peregrine! amazingly stout-bodied, a juvenile.

soon I want to try and tackle the pointers you gave a while ago for differentiating between Lesser and Common Kestrels.