I got this high up at Mt Samson on Saturday.
Can't decide between Hobby or Peregrine Falcon.
Maybe someone who knows a bit more about Raptors can help.
All I did was heavily crop the photos and reduced the shadow.
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I am definitely not an expert in raptors, but a juv Peregrine Falcon?
Tegan - Melbourne Vic.
Definitely just a beginner with raptors, but my first impression was a hobby ... Pizzey and Knight say of the hobby "wings and square cut tail proportionally longer, narrower than Peregrine's", and tail in the photos looks long and narrow.
Tough one, first impression was PF but going with AH. Just a feeling, seen both up close but this is hard to pick.
Would love to see an analysis from a raptor expert as I can't pick it with confidence.
If anything not chunky enough for a PF.
Thanks for trying guys.
Its hard when the pic is cropped soo much and has so much noise.
Hopefully a raptor expert would b able to give a definate.
Definitely a tough one but due to wing/tail proportoins Im also inclined to go with AH. Probably a female as it is quite solidly built, but not enough so for Peregrine IMO.
LM
Thanks guys.
Either way it is a new tick for me, although I may not count it as it is hard to give a positive ID.
Just wish I had gotten a better photo.
Means I just have to go out and try again :)
I'm leaning towards a immature Peregrine, due to the heavy black "helmuted" head, what appears to be wider wings and somewhat chunkier body and head(Little Falcons/ Australian Hobbies are much more slender in the body and look more long winged in general), lack of obvious fawn colourationand streaking rather than barring on breast.
I think culfran3 may be on the money here.
Revisiting these photos with fresh eyes I am also now leaning more towards Peregrine, for the same reasons given by culfran3.
LM
Thanks Snail, Rick & culfran3. I can see why you would say that. It definately looks thicker than than the Hobby.
Bit late to this one (and certainly far from an expert), but my feeling is PF, too.
Reckon I took a pretty average photo of a juvenile Peregrine a couple of years back which looked a lot like this bird.
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Mike
https://flic.kr/ps/aF4bq
i'm going with peregrine as well
also note a hobby is a species of falcon too
Thanks Mike & Zosterops - Have marked this one down as a PF
It is a Hobby for sure. Thin build, brown markings and in the first photo there's a distinct brown patch near the rump. No way it is a Peregrine. I will show these pics to Steve Debus, he will confirm.
If I am wrong, c'est la vie.
I had an answer from Steve Debus on the identity of this raptor. His words:
Hi Akos,
Yes, definitely Hobby: slender build, narrow wings, long tail, partial ‘helmet’, small bill.
See you tomorrow. Cheers,
Steve
PS. I would recommend you guys purchase the below raptor field giude. Not because many of my photos of our raptors are in it (I get no royalties from sales), but it WILL HELP YOU become better at field ID. And once you have a kind of decent photo like the ones above then the mistakes in ID can be completely avoided.
http://www.publish.csiro.au/pid/6654.htm
Thanks for taking the time to have a look and confirming it for me Akos.Maybe that book's something I need to look into.
You are most welcome.
I did forget to mention the narrower wings in your bird mate.
The book is very informative and it gives clear and concise comparisons to easy to mix up species. You'd be surprised how many people have seen a Red Goshawk in southern NSW where they actually saw a female Swamp Harrier.
Incidentally, I've got a couple of semi-decent juvenile Peregrine shots here:
Got my copy of the book a couple of days ago and really impressed with the drawings and photos. I also like that it has drawings of the birds in flight of the upperside from above, as well as the usual ones of the underside from below. As your falcon photo shows its quite common to get photos of the upperside of a raptor in flight as well as the underside.