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Raptor ID help (1 Viewer)

jimmmer

Well-known member
In 2015/16 i posted a silhouette image an you guys and gals were able to positively identify it I hope you can do the same with this image. The birds were large, slow flying the size reminded me of the MH or the tundra subspecie of the peregrine falcon, we had a large female a few year back on island. Hope you are able to shed some like on this bird. Thank
 

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Can you comment on the color? is seems in the image that the color is reddish brown with darker outer half of tail, but did you have the same/different impression in the field? Sometimes color is off on images due to white-balance issues.

Niels
 
Can you comment on the color? is seems in the image that the color is reddish brown with darker outer half of tail, but did you have the same/different impression in the field? Sometimes color is off on images due to white-balance issues.

Niels

Thank for you responds. It was late in the evening and I had to bump the ISO up. I could not even get a good look through the binos so I would not hang to much on the color.
I was more asking about the shape, wings and tail etc
 
Can you comment on the color? is seems in the image that the color is reddish brown with darker outer half of tail, but did you have the same/different impression in the field? Sometimes color is off on images due to white-balance issues.

Niels

Thank for you responds. It was late in the evening and I had to bump the ISO up. I could not even get a good look through the binos so I would not hang to much on the color.
I was more asking about the shape, wings and tail etc
 
The silhouette of the OP bird is absolutely typical of falcon (Falco sp.), with very triangular, narrow tipped hand; also you can see the straighter trailing edge to the secondaries (it's curved and variably bulging in Accipiter sp.). Here's a Cooper's in a comparable position (note broad wing tip, with visible "fingers": https://goo.gl/images/xodXgP). Note also that there seem to be no records of Accipiter hawks in Barbados.

I'd say with that shape your options are down to Peregrine and Merlin only; if I had to choose from the two I'd favour the latter on structure, but could be tricky. Both falcon species are on Barbados list and an additional, American Kestrel, is a vagrant (but it's excluded as a possibility for the present case on shape).
 
From the size of the bird it would have to be a female Peregrine Falcon. Thank Rafael for giving the explanation it thought me a lot.
 
The silhouette of the OP bird is absolutely typical of falcon (Falco sp.), with very triangular, narrow tipped hand; also you can see the straighter trailing edge to the secondaries (it's curved and variably bulging in Accipiter sp.). Here's a Cooper's in a comparable position (note broad wing tip, with visible "fingers": https://goo.gl/images/xodXgP). Note also that there seem to be no records of Accipiter hawks in Barbados.

I'd say with that shape your options are down to Peregrine and Merlin only; if I had to choose from the two I'd favour the latter on structure, but could be tricky. Both falcon species are on Barbados list and an additional, American Kestrel, is a vagrant (but it's excluded as a possibility for the present case on shape).

I agree with this analysis and also see a Merlin here.
 
Two things about size:
Firstly, we humans are not very good at judging size
Secondly, Merlin in North America is quite variable in size. Mean mass in grams of males banded in NJ was 158.6 ± 11.6 while the same number for females in Saskatoon was 255.5 g ± 17.1.

Niels

Added later: numbers come from Birds of North America online. They partly reflect the size difference male-female and partly the size difference between subspecies
 
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