Falcon, Tajikistan (1 Viewer)

[dalat]

Hi, need some help with this falcon in Tajikistan, north of Dushanbe, yesterday.
Thanks, Florian

 

[Muppit17]

It has the broad chest and wing chord of a Peregrine or Saker Falcon, but it is very difficult to judge scale.
The underside and head is very pale. I think the typical covert line is just there, albeit very weak , so I would go for Saker.
I wonder if it could be one of those mythical Altai Falcons, but have no experience of this form and would welcome others opinions.

 

[dalat]

Thanks a lot!

 

[MJB]

It has the broad chest and wing chord of a Peregrine or Saker Falcon, but it is very difficult to judge scale.
The underside and head is very pale. I think the typical covert line is just there, albeit very weak , so I would go for Saker.
I wonder if it could be one of those mythical Altai Falcons, but have no experience of this form and would welcome others opinions.

Likely you are right in treating the 'Altai Falcon' as mythical. Karyakin 2011 provides convincing phenotypical & molecular rationales for regarding 'altaicus' as a colour morph that appears in a variety of appropriately-marked broods in several 'cherrug-type' and 'milvipes-type' populations inside and beyond breeding areas previously hypothesised as being core 'altaicus' range.

Also, Zhan et al 2015 examined exonic & intronic single nucleotide polymorphism in many Saker populations, concluding that the species essentially is monotypic and that any differences between these populations do not match any hypothesised subspecies' distribution: plumage differences are clinal between populations previously identified as cherrug and milvipes. However, the analysis of Fuchs et al 2015 indicates that F. cherrug sensu lato is not monophyletic.

There may be further information published since 2015, and if so I would like a copy! Whether a deeper interpretation of the data from these three references would draw subtler conclusions, I stand to be corrected.
MJB
Fuchs, J, JA Johnson and DP Mindell. 2015. Rapid diversification of falcons (Aves: Falconidae) due to expansion of open habitats in the Late Miocene. Mol. Phyl Evol. 82: 166-182.
Karyakin, IV. 2011. Subspecies population structure of the Saker Falcon range. Raptors Conservation. 21: 116-172.
Zhan, X, A Dixon, N Batbayar, E Bragin, Z Ayas, L Deutschova, J Chavko, S Domashevsky, A Dorosencu, J Bagyura, S Gombobaatar, ID Grlica, A Levin, Y Milobog, M Ming, M Prommer, G Purev-Ochir, D Ragyov, V Tsurkanu, V Vetrov, N Zubkov and MW Bruford. 2015. Exonic versus intronic SNPs: contrasting roles in revealing the population genetic structure of a widespread bird species. Heredity 114: 1-9.

 

[Patudo]

It looks like quite a big bird, but I'm reminded that female Barbarys I've seen have looked hefty because of their proportions. What were your impressions of its size and manner of flight - how long did you have it in view for, and what did it do - and how did it compare to known peregrines and other large falcons you had seen?

 

[Butty]

It looks like quite a big bird

Judging the size of a lone bird in the field is notoriously unreliable. Judging the size of a lone bird in the sky in a photo is impossible.

 

[ratt]

I think you can judge the tail to be long here, longer than most other than Saker.