Bird of Prey ID?

[Dave]

Taken with a point and shoot froma fair distance.

Is this a buzzard? Never seen one in this area before.
Normally the kestrels hunting patch. It was hovering/hunting in the same way as the kestrel.
It was substantially bigger than a crow.

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[Joonsy]

no absolutely not a buzzard, just looks like a windhover to me

 

[Mesquite]

Looks like a male Kestrel

 

[petrochemicals]

grey and a white tale is it, or brown , or something else ? Not a kite for sure.

Edit:

might be a kite though

 

[Perrari]

It's a Red Kite ! 99% certain colour & shape of the tail is a giveaway. Where was it ? There's lots of them in mid Wales.

 

[John Fenna]

No fork in the tail so not a Kite....

 

[British Red]

The head down hover and colouring says kestrel to me

 

[Pterodaktyl]

Looks 100% Kestrel to me except for the reported size. As John says the tail is a fan rather than a fork which rules out Red Kite, and there really aren't any other raptors which match the colouring. Maybe someone's been feeding the local vole population growth hormones?

 

[Gaudette]

Male kestrel. In the first pick you can see the rusty brown of the back going into black towards wing tips. In the second the tail is concave not convex ( so not a kite ) it's grey with black tips. Without doubt a male kestrel.

 

[Perrari]

Ok I stand corrected.
Put Red kite in on Google, then click images, there are lots of pictures on there where the fork is not that prominent in the tail ? Maybe the more they spread the tail the less obvious the fork is ?

 

[Dave]

Ok. Sounds like a male kestrel then?

It was as big, or bigger than a crow. Maybe not substantially bigger as I posted originally.

But a lot bigger than the other kestrels ive seen hovering in the same spot. Which is what made me think it musnt be a kestrel

 

[Gaudette]

When fully spread the tail can appear fairly straight. This happens when it's being used at full stretch for example during a turn.

 

[petrochemicals]

I'll be honest I thought peregrine falcon, big birds grey, white tail. Do not know whether they hover when hunting ? Size of a raven.

 

[santaman2000]

C.I.A. Drone

 

[petrochemicals]

@santaman

cant be a CIA drone, Congress is dragging its heals about deploying them to.