Amur Falcon

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Posting this as sightings of Amur are very rare in kerala.As informed to me this is only the fifth reported sighting in kerela.Was so excited that i didnt bother to look at the cam settings.Not a good pic anyways not a fan of birds perched on electric wires.Pic taken in May 2010.

500D, 55-250, F8,250mm, SS 1/1000

Roopak

[Tushar Dixit]

Awesome! You are mighty lucky to have seen one. Usually these guys are spotted during their long migration towards south of Africa. And don't worry about telegraph wires, probability is that you will find them on it only. In fact I am yet to see it on any other perch :)

I was lucky to see 3 individuals in Pune couple of weeks back. It is rare here too and I can understand what you must have felt seeing this beauty. Few lucky souls have spotted hundreds of them in a flock en route their migration!

Thanks for sharing!

[Tushar Dixit]

Few more interesting pieces of information (from Rakesh Dhareshwar's blog):

This falcon breeds in Northern China and South eastern Siberia and spends all summer there. It undertakes a migration journey from this region all the way to Southern Africa where they spend the winter and then undertake the journey back home. In one of the routes it undertakes, it has to cross the Indian Ocean flying non stop for almost 3 days! The bulk of sightings of this bird in the western part of the country is restricted to mid-November to mid-December, and then again during April/May on their return journey.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Beautiful eye contact. Nice head turn. Lucky to sight this and get a decent photograph. Thanks for sharing.

Tushar, thanks for sharing the detailed information about this bird.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Great sighting. A natural perch would have been over the top. Am travelling and don't have the Pamela Rasmussen copy with me. Will refer to it later for some more details on this bird. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Nice sighting Roopak, I am yet to see this beauty. The eye contact is nice and I quite liked the image. Agree about a natural perch but guess hard to find them.
tfs