ML340705841

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

I first saw this bird at 7:35 as it appeared over a woods coming towards me. My closest look was 60-70 yards with 10x42 binoculars. It was larger than a kestrel or merlin but smaller than a peregrine falcon.The bird had long pointed wings with outermost primary shorter, although very poor photos this feature can be seen in the one. The wings had dark primaries and light almost white secondaries. The tail was long and flared as can be seen in the photos. The tail was black. The head was light colored but not as white as the secondaries. The light colored head can be seen in the one photo.There was no streaking or barring anywhere on this bird. The flight style of this bird was graceful and acrobatic. It would ascend on easy wingbeats till it would stall out but not hover, just kind of floated momentarily then started to descend again. I noted that this bird often had it's legs/feet hanging down in flight, given that they catch their prey in flight this characteristic would make sense. I noted the coloration on this bird when it was closest to me. I wanted to note as many field marks as possible when I had relatively good binocular view. As it gained distance from me I snapped off a bunch of shots which don't show the colors on the bird except for the light head in the one. But they do show the profile of the wings with short outermost primary and the long, flared tail. I will attach photos. The bird disappeared as it slowly made it's way north.

Technical information

Model

SM-G950U

ISO

50

Focal length

4.3 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/1.7

Shutter speed

1/331 sec

Dimensions

1925 pixels x 2216 pixels

Original file size

583.89 KB