Sunday, 7 November 2010

Pale Peregrine

Some pics of a a very pale juv peregrine seen at Treen. Any opinions?

2 comments:

Henry Cook said...

Hi, interesting set of pics.

This bird bears resemblance to Tundra Peregrine (Falco peregrinus tundrius) from the states. The narrow moustache allowing the pale auricular patch to be large, pale supercillium, pale cap and forehead plus narrow (ish) breast streaking all point towards this as a juvenile tundrius type. Can't see the upperparts in this set of photos but the feathering is supposed to show buff-coloured fringes to all mantle, scapular and covert feathers.

There was reports of a tundra type Peregrine on the Scillies this autumn which shows all of those features. Useful pic here (copy and paste into brower) -

http://www.rarebirdalert.co.uk/RealData/gallery_show.asp?galleryid=7949&page=1&sort=4&SpeciesID=3200&L1=0&L2=8&L3=5

I have not seen this subspecies myself in the field before (dipped the scillies bird this autumn) and just going off the published literature, so I can't be too sure myself but thought i'd raise the possibility.

Thanks. Henry Cook.

Lizard Naturally said...

The pics have been posted on Surfbirds ID forum. http://www.surfbirds.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7536
Some intersting comments.
Would be very intersting to see any images of the variation in UK breeding birds.