Any ornithologists out there?

by **Adriana** » 22 Jan 2008, 14:22

I have just put up some photographs on my diary page of an intruder we found in one of our henhouses on Sunday. :idea:

Any help in identifying him would be gratefully received!

by **Tove** » 22 Jan 2008, 14:57

I have looked in all my books of birds and my guess is its a falcon, maybe falco tinnunculus (think its kestrel in English)or a falco naumanni and definitely a female or young bird. But I am not sure.

by **SamanthaF** » 22 Jan 2008, 20:36

It's a Kestral.

by **Kyriako** » 22 Jan 2008, 20:51

Looks like a close call Adriana! The poor things must've been terrified. Your defences were effective!

by **Kon** » 22 Jan 2008, 23:27

Agh yes the imgoingtoeatallthechickenurus species

by **Kyriako** » 23 Jan 2008, 00:49

It's actually a new species of bat - I checked on Wikipedia

by **Jan** » 23 Jan 2008, 11:31

I wonder if it could be an Eleonora's falcon? They're listed on as breeding in the area.

But I'm no twitcher...

by **Adriana** » 23 Jan 2008, 11:41

It certainly looks very like Eleanor's Falcon but our specimen had yellow eyes and all the pictures I can find on the net show brown eyes... :?:

by **Ozzie Geoff** » 23 Jan 2008, 12:58

It looks like some sort of falcon to me. Yesterday a King Penguin washed up on our shores, some 4000 miles off its normal couse. Unfortunately it was decapitated by either toe-rags or a fox. I hope the autopsy says it was a fox..

With the low life around nothing would surprise me..bring back corporal punishment.. :?:

by **Jan** » 23 Jan 2008, 17:07

It's amazing what you find on the interweb... Did you know that the Greek (Cypriot) name for Eleonora's falcon is mavromatis, which rather ruins my theory? See

by **MacDuff** » 24 Jan 2008, 01:18

T'aint nuttin

Wait until the GINGER turkey gets into your henhouse :twisted:

by **Adriana** » 25 Jan 2008, 10:19

New developments on the raptor front. My brother in law who is a dinkum ornithologist says it is neither a falcon nor a kestrel and is more likely to be a member of the accipiter family such as a sparrowhawk. :?:

The clues apparently lie in the long legs and long tail.

Now to find out which... :idea:

by **Kon** » 25 Jan 2008, 10:26

No relation to this little fellow is it
[img]http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/9818/27674644foghorn12pulledlr0.jpg[/img]

by **Tove** » 25 Jan 2008, 14:54

He's probably right, Adriana, my books says the sparrowhawk is easy to be mistaken for a falcon.I haven't found any good pictures that show the different kinds. Am off on weekend now to the other end of the country, hope we will manage, its blowing a lot and they use to close the bridge between the ma�n islands in bad weather. But I don't think we get any snow :!:

, 10 degrees yesterday and it continues that way.

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