Thursday, March 1, 2012

Peregrine at IRRI

This looks to be very similar to the birds that have been visiting IRRI for the last 2 winters. The two races that occur in The Philippines are ernesti and calidus. They're very easy to separate as ernesti does not have the white cheek patches that form the narrow tear marks so obvious in this bird.

The bird is clearly a juvenile, with streaked underparts and rufous fringes on the mantle and back. If the bird is the same one returning annually it is retaining its juvenile plumage for a number of years.

The underparts are very heavily streaked black, not the fine barring you would expect from an adult
The base colour of this bird is very pale, not what I'd expect from a juvenile...
A bird photographed in the same area (less than 100m away) on Jan 28 2011. Obvious rufous fringes to the upperparts.
An adult of race ernesti, IRRI 23rd Sept 2013.



2 comments:

  1. Hi Paul,

    We've been seeing Peregrines in San Pablo for the past 11 winters. They only show up during the day, it seems, following the migratory terns that visit Sampaloc Lake... the terns don't stay long. They depart like clockwork a little after 4:00 in the afternoon. But I've seen Peregrines stoop and capture bats.

    I used to call that Peregrine 5:45 because it always showed up at that time, go hunt a bit and fly towards the direction of Malaming/Bangkong Kahoy/Dolores.

    It's usually around the lake in the late afternoon. It has a favorite perch.

    It quits the area around Easter to return every November-December.

    @nednared

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  2. Ours seems to overnight, probably roosting on the pylons that go through the farm. They certainly have been coming for much longer than the time I stated, it's just that no-one was looking! I'd be interested to find out if the same birds are returning to the same sites every winter. A difficult thing to do I'm afraid!

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