Out for a quicky yesterday, nothing much about but just as we got back to the car hubby noticed a few birds on a wire. 2 mistle thrushes and a crow, then something else. He thought it was a bop but it looked really small (he had the binocs), to my naked eye it looked not much bigger than the mistle thrushes. I could only just see the bird through the camera, but after cropping it looks like a kestrel (although I'm not entirely convinced as its size is bothering me). For those who don't know, we see lots of kestrels when out and about. I got a pic of it with the crow, which didn't try to mob it, nor did the mistle thrushes seem bothered by it. Anyway what do you think - is it really small?
Edit - have posted the pic but it seems to have disappeared - here goes again
Cheers Deb
http://www.flickr.com/photos/Debz_14/
It's a male Kestrel - they are a lot smaller than Carrion Crows (34ish cm vs 46ish cm, 190g vs 520g). Female Kestrels are a bit bigger than males.
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Cheers Aiki, that would account for the head looking greyish. i thought female because its back and tail looked banded when in flight - although I don't know what the big black spot is
just when you think that you're getting the hang of it too lol
Young males have banded tails in their first winter, the grey head develops after the post-juvenile moult but they don't get the adult tail pattern til the following year's moult - this might help: http://www.ibercajalav.net/img/131_KestrelFtinnunculus.pdf
Thanks Aiki, very helpful indeed.