Falcon ID - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia May 28 (1 Viewer)

jstanleyg · May 28, 2017

I saw a falcon in Addis Ababa for the first time in nearly four years. The problem is figuring out which one! My pictures are terrible, as you can see, due to distance, back lighting, and a very fast falcon. Unfortunately when the bird was closest to me it was in a full on dive, so even with fast shutter speeds there is blurring and a missed opportunity for viewing the underside of the wings.

The speed alone made me think Peregrine at first, but I'm not sure the profile fits as well as some of the smaller hobbies. Of potential importance is the fact that last night we had a large swarm of termites in the area and there is a lot of activity today from other birds (and ants) to try to capitalize on the spoils.

If you can help me with the ID, I'd greatly appreciate it. I have only identified one falcon -- Lanner Falcon -- in Ethiopia thus far.

Justin

tconzemi · May 28, 2017

difficult pictures but despite the rather bold looking moustache, the tail length says Lanner

Andy Adcock · May 28, 2017

Peregrine?

A

Andy Adcock · May 28, 2017

tconzemi said:
difficult pictures but despite the rather bold looking moustache, the tail length says Lanner

Lanner would have dark/er under wing coverts?

A

AlinoVegano · May 28, 2017

Peregrine for me, tail looks long because moult in wings.

Tib78 · May 29, 2017

Tentatively a Lanner for me. A Peregrine with that tail length would have to be from a Northern migrant population which not only is not supposed to be in Ethiopia in late may but would be in a totally different state of moult. The resident ssp minor is more compact and darker on the underparts. Also taking advantage of termites swarms is more typical of Lanner than peregrine.
Difficult images though...

Bryon Wright · May 29, 2017

Hi all,
The bird is not having an easy moult. Cannot positively exclude taita falcon from the photograph but the shallow stoop, using the primary coverts as air brakes is so typical for lanner.

AlinoVegano · May 29, 2017

Tib78 said:
Tentatively a Lanner for me. A Peregrine with that tail length would have to be from a Northern migrant population which not only is not supposed to be in Ethiopia in late may but would be in a totally different state of moult. The resident ssp minor is more compact and darker on the underparts. Also taking advantage of termites swarms is more typical of Lanner than peregrine.
Difficult images though...

A wintering calidus that didn't manage to replace its feathers for some health or other issues would probably over-summer in Africa, unable to migrate. It would therefore explain the horrible conditions of the feathers, the long tail and the pale underparts.

jstanleyg · May 29, 2017

I'll keep my eyes open and try to get some better shots of it shows up again...

martin5657 · May 29, 2017

peregrine for me too
m

P.Sunesen · May 29, 2017

Bryon Wright said:
Hi all,
The bird is not having an easy moult. Cannot positively exclude taita falcon from the photograph but the shallow stoop, using the primary coverts as air brakes is so typical for lanner.

And for Peregrine.
Small correction: the primary coverts are not used as brakes, as they wouldn't work much if raised and that's about the only thing the falcon can do with them.

The alula (the "thumb") however, is a flexible unit that is used by ALL kinds of birds when certain aerodynamics are needed. And that is what you see in the stooping bird.

Peter

Tib78 · May 29, 2017

AlinoVegano said:
A wintering calidus that didn't manage to replace its feathers for some health or other issues would probably over-summer in Africa, unable to migrate. It would therefore explain the horrible conditions of the feathers, the long tail and the pale underparts.

Well that sounds more like wishfull thinking than actual observation of what's showing up in the pictures. But each to his own I guess.
Yet, not only the tail is long, but it is also relatively narrow based instead of the broad based "Gyr style" tail typical of calidus.

A Lanner from Eritrea showing a very comparable mout score (starting to replace its median primaries) to the OP, in early june: https://africanbirdclub.org/afbid/search/birddetails/species/340/29069

Sangahyando · May 29, 2017

Tib78 said:
The resident ssp minor is more compact [...]

I feel like that's an important point, because at first glance the bird seemed so typically Peregrine-like in shape (particularly in the fourth picture). Not that I'm qualified to judge whether it's one or the other...

Andy Adcock · May 29, 2017

Tib78 said:
Yet, not only the tail is long, but it is also relatively narrow based instead of the broad based "Gyr style" tail typical of calidus.

Apparent tail length was discredited due to moult condition in a recent ID post, what makes this any different?

A

tconzemi · May 29, 2017

andyadcock said:
Apparent tail length was discredited due to moult condition in a recent ID post, what makes this any different?

A

Well that was one opinion expressed and I do not really understand what it means, inner secondaries are still there to compare with and tail is obviously long, also I agree that silhouette in pic #4 looks perfect for Peregrine, this is fortunately not the only pic.

Tib78 · May 29, 2017

andyadcock said:
Apparent tail length was discredited due to moult condition in a recent ID post, what makes this any different?

A

Well I am not author of the said post you are relating to, so I don't understand your point? I can't justify words that are not mine, can I? Especialy so since I don't even know what thread/post you are referring to?

Beside, as long as the inner secondaries are there (which happens to be the case here) your reference point for gauging tail length is there. Also P10 has not been shed yet, in combination with the tail and inner secondaries, it means that we still have a good idea of the global shape of that bird. And I am not surprised that some of us are seeing a Peregrine...it's not like the 2 species are a million miles away from each other in terms of silhouette...

Edit: cross-post with Tom...

AlinoVegano · May 29, 2017

Tib78 said:
Well that sounds more like wishfull thinking than actual observation of what's showing up in the pictures. But each to his own I guess.
Yet, not only the tail is long, but it is also relatively narrow based instead of the broad based "Gyr style" tail typical of calidus.

A Lanner from Eritrea showing a very comparable mout score (starting to replace its median primaries) to the OP, in early june: https://africanbirdclub.org/afbid/search/birddetails/species/340/29069

I don't prefer that bird to be a Lanner or a Peregrine, my story is not wishful, it is an example of situation that prove the Calidus Peregrine solution is plausible.

What is obvious on the bird you link is the narrow mustache while OP bird has a wider one.

Shape of tail, OP bird has length and shape of such a bird I would say.

http://www.oknation.net/blog/home/user_data/album_data/201608/23/54117/images/485180.jpg

Tib78 · May 29, 2017

AlinoVegano said:
What is obvious on the bird you link is the narrow mustache while OP bird has a wider one.

The point of that link was the moult score similar to the OP, not the moustache shape, I thought that was clear.
Beside, the moustache shape is, to some extent, a notoriously variable feature in large falcons and it does not take much effort to locate a Lanner with similarly wide (or actually wider...) moustache. See the top photo with a nice pair showing a clear discrepancy for that matter: http://www.tanzaniabirds.net/African_birds/Falcon_Lanner/lf.htm
Finding a picture of a Northern peregrine moulting its primaries in may would take considerably more time and effort to say the last...If your up to the challenge...

And just to add, the moustache is indeed thin in the OP bird, so thin that it is in fact at the very end of the variation displayed by non-juvenile Peregrine.

AlinoVegano · May 29, 2017

Tib78 said:
The point of that link was the moult score similar to the OP, not the moustache shape, I thought that was clear.
Beside, the moustache shape is, to some extent, a notoriously variable feature in large falcons and it does not take much effort to locate a Lanner with similarly wide (or actually wider...) moustache. See the top photo with a nice pair showing a clear discrepancy for that matter: http://www.tanzaniabirds.net/African_birds/Falcon_Lanner/lf.htm
Finding a picture of a Northern peregrine moulting its primaries in may would take considerably more time and effort to say the last...If your up to the challenge...

And just to add, the moustache is indeed thin in the OP bird, so thin that it is in fact at the very end of the variation displayed by non-juvenile Peregrine.

The mustache of OP bird still broaded than your example of Lanner in Tanzania and this adult Calidus. This is therefore not the "very end" of the variation, but right in the middle, but too wide for a Lanner imho, or at best at the very end of the Lanner's mustache variation.

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sIj2GJbT...Z9kk7VJOyOlWiORHc7ieQ7aOQCPcB/s640/561984.jpg

Tib78 · May 29, 2017

Justin, can you please post a crop of the last pic with the bird stooping? I guess it's already cropped but it's worth a try.
I was having a bit of fun with lightroom when I noticed some nice rounded spots on the breast sides of your bird and when one increases the saturation, there is a nice rufous tinge that appears on the cheek. To me that pretty much puts the final nail in the coffin of the peregrine theory but let's see if a different version of the pic allows a better evalution of these details.

Falcon ID - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia May 28 (1 Viewer)

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