• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

UK raptor (1 Viewer)

Surreybirder

Ken Noble
I took this (awful) photo of a red kite. When I got home I spotted that there was a falcon-like bird beyond it. I was thinking kestrel but I'm not sure. Any views? This was today in Surrey.
 

Attachments

  • red kite and friend ex IMG_1529.JPG
    red kite and friend ex IMG_1529.JPG
    46.7 KB · Views: 306
Sparrowhawk for me too, those primary fingers standout as more of a feature of sparrowhawk than peregrine
 
To be honest my initial gut was of a Crow species, it is an odd angle, and the knuckle effect and fingers just give me that jizz.
 
The shape of the bird's left wing is clearly that of an accipiter and not a falco.

RB

By pure chance we can also see the right wing which looks somehow like a Peregrine Falcon wing, I don'st say it is one but I am pretty sure it is not a Sprawk (Gos maybe with that chest, an it's behind the Red Kite and not a small bird)
Pictures like these can be very deceptive, it's gut feeling and I may be comletely wrong and it is a crow

https://www.flickr.com/photos/150317576@N08/44840715694
 
By pure chance we can also see the right wing which looks somehow like a Peregrine Falcon wing, I don'st say it is one but I am pretty sure it is not a Sprawk (Gos maybe with that chest, an it's behind the Red Kite and not a small bird)
Pictures like these can be very deceptive, it's gut feeling and I may be comletely wrong and it is a crow

https://www.flickr.com/photos/150317576@N08/44840715694

Interesting suggestion. There were ravens in the area at the time.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1520.JPG
    IMG_1520.JPG
    85.8 KB · Views: 55
Corvid - most probably Carrion Crow. The apparent shape of the right wing is an artefact of the angle the photo is taken at. I can’t help feeling that this image exemplifies the problem with trying to identify birds ‘after the event’ from a photograph when simply watching it ‘live’ for a few moments would make an identification obvious.
 
Corvid - most probably Carrion Crow. The apparent shape of the right wing is an artefact of the angle the photo is taken at. I can’t help feeling that this image exemplifies the problem with trying to identify birds ‘after the event’ from a photograph when simply watching it ‘live’ for a few moments would make an identification obvious.

Thanks, it seems that we have some sort of consensus on crow. I agree with your point but I didn't see the bird until I looked at the photo.

By way of an addendum, there was a red kite at the same place today and it was being dive-bombed by the two local kestrels (who have a nest near-by). They looked tiny in comparison.
 
Thanks, it seems that we have some sort of consensus on crow. I agree with your point but I didn't see the bird until I looked at the photo.

By way of an addendum, there was a red kite at the same place today and it was being dive-bombed by the two local kestrels (who have a nest near-by). They looked tiny in comparison.

Didn’t mean my post to sound like a criticism - I was simply highlighting the difficulties of looking at single shots compared to a moving bird.
 
Didn’t mean my post to sound like a criticism - I was simply highlighting the difficulties of looking at single shots compared to a moving bird.

:t:

I've learnt a lot from you guys and I know that if I (personally) 'scramble' for my camera and try and get a record shot then I could have - as ryckfour has stated - just watched the bird and made a few observations so even if I didn't get a clear enough shot of the bird then I know you guys, or even I myself, could then make a good guess as to what that bird was.

And just to add that looking at the first post and at those photos and then to read on and the discussion has led to it being a common Carrion Crow - wow, I didn't see that coming :eek!:
 
FWIW, I believe that the anomalous lump left of head to be the possible heavy beak of a Raven?

Cheers
 
FWIW, I believe that the anomalous lump left of head to be the possible heavy beak of a Raven?

Cheers

That’s partly why I said ‘probably Carrion Crow’ the head is hard to make out and does look quite heavy but the difference in size between the two birds seems too great for it to be a Raven.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 4 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top