Amur Falcon (Falco amurensis)
The Amur Falcon, previously known as Eastern Red-footed Falcon, is a small raptor of the falcon family. It breeds in south-eastern Siberia and Northern China, wintering in Southern Africa. This bird is far from home…
The birds diet consists mainly of insects, such as termites.
Males are characteristically dark sooty colour (grey), the chestnut on the vent should prevent miss identification with the Gabar Goshawk. Also there may be some superficial resemblance to Sooty Falcon and Grey Kestrel, but those two species both have yellow feet and cere. Separating male Amur and Red-footed Falcons is best done by the white under-wing coverts on Amur Falcon, whereas the under-wing of male Red-footed Falcons is uniformly grey.
Females may offer a bit more confusion with a wider range of falcons as they have a typical falcon head pattern. The grey on the top of the head should quickly rule out confusion with Red-footed Falcons. The female has barring on the lower belly. Red cere and feet this rules out all other falcons.
These photos are of a Male Amur Falcon…
The Photographic Journey of bulldog. 
beautiful colors and the way you got them to pose for you is perfect!
Thank you… haven’t been so lucky for a long time…
Fabulous captures, Rob! 🙂
Thanks Inga
Wonderful shots, Rob. Especially the closeup one. Fantastic detail.
Thank you Maralee…
And they migrate each year back and forth? Amazing how these birds know their way. As do whales and many other migrating species.
Humans have lost so many instincts… but we do have GPS 😉
Yes Marion, was fascinates me if they head here for summer then return for the summer there why don’t they just stop in the tropics and stay there permanently…. one of the fascinating things of nature we will never have an answer to…
Wow! What gorgeous shots!! The birdman strikes again!! What a beauty 🙂
Not bad for an old fart with eye problems… just shows the camera only needs me to point and press… thank you..
LOL! Now what did I tell you about that “old” fart business…you’re just a fart….Funny, I was just thinking about your eye problems…keep us up to date with your eye events!
Will do… see the Dr. again tomorrow…
Good!….we’ll want our update! Have a little chocolate beforehand…calm the nerves,,,if you are having any “nerves”…which I highly doubt…you are such a cool, calm sort of Bulldog.
well it is liking it where it is now! that is one fat falcon, does it fly all the way back next? no wonder it is putting on the pies.. oh and thank you for the map, a picture really does paint a thousand words!.. c
Up and down between the two places… hell stop off in the tropics and save yourself a ton of flying… I didn’t visualise the distance till I put up the map… and then in the research I believe about 100 000 end up as food in a country near India called Nagaland… what a life to live…
arduous..
Who’s a pretty bird?? You get around SO much!!!
Thank you… all in a days rest…
Once again … stunning photos of a gorgeous bird. My favorite one is the second last .. were it looks straight at you. We have falcons too – loads in my county – but I always see them when I’m in a car or in a bus.
Thank you Viveka… it is an unusual bird to find roosting so early and then to be so calm when I crept closer…
Fantastic shots. Never ceases to amaze me how far birds will travel.
Thank you… I agree, all that way for the summer… one would think crossing the equator there would be enough for them to stop there…
I can’t get over the third picture, (image 237) with the falcon peering over his shoulder. Talk about perfect!
Thank you… that one did come out well.. I’m pleasantly surprised with the results I got of this shoot, as my eye problems stop me from making any finer adjustments camera wise…
The head isn’t as “pointy” as I would expect of a falcon. He’s beautiful! That’s a long way to travel just to get a feeding of termites! 🙂 You captured some beautiful shots!
Thank you.. when I took these shots I had no idea what it was… it is the first one I’ve seen here or let me put it differently the first I’ve been able to photo well enough to make an ID… Mt son in law actually made the ID… and gave me a head start into the research…
Stunning photos Bulldog. 🙂
Thank you LuAnn
Wow bulldog – this is an amazing set. What a majestic bird!
Thank you.. got some good ones with the bad eyes…
It looks like you are doing pretty good for a blind fella
It obviously likes having its photo taken!
Thanks Julie… it certainly seemed that way…
I absolutely love that second last photo! It looks like he’s about to jump out of the screen at me. Amazing!
Thank you Dianne.. just wish my eyes were repaired got the exposure slightly off on some of these captures..
They look pretty good to me!
A beautiful bird and indeed far from home!
You can say that again… honestly didn’t know this bird and when ID did the research… gob smacked at the distance they travel.. we must have a very tasty insect here for them to travel so far…
It’s probably the climate and they heard some guy takes awesome pics there and well…they want their 15 minutes of fame too!
their flight has been well captured..like the close shots too
Thank you.. kind words..
An attractive bird, and one that certainly knows all about navigation! What an incredible distance it travels. How does it carry it’s passport? 🙂
In the same place it carries it’s GPS navi system… sorry John could not resist that…
That’s how it does it!!
He’s quite a handsome fellow. Love the orange from beak to feet!
Thanks Lorna…
Eccezionali, sono foto bellissime. Complimenti, bravissimo!!
Ciao, Pat
Thanks Pat…
I enjoyed this very much. wonderful photographs. Most especially the first two close-ups and on the wing, soaring! Just great!
Thank you so much… and thanks for popping in.. I saw the link on twitter and traced you back to here .. where I decided I must follow you…
My pleasure, I really enjoyed your article and the photographs and thank you for coming to my blog and following. I appreciate it very sincerely!
It’s amazing the distances birds will fly. Little hummingbirds fly from the mainland coast of Canada to the Queen Charlotte Islands without a place to rest. I’m not sure in miles how far it is but it takes a fishboat about 8 hours from land to land. (Roughly estimated). I’ll find out how far it is. But this tiny bird flies so far without a chance to rest. Love your posts on birds and animals, Rob.
Thank you for the complement… It always amazes me the distances and the speed with which they make these journeys… one of the things I picked up when researching this bird is… and I quote…”Every year, more than 100,000 Amur Falcons are hunted for food at Nagaland during their passage between breeding and wintering grounds.” that is a large number to loose on their way here…
Oh that’s sad when there are birds like chickens to eat instead. People won’t be satisfied until they eradicate every species from this Earth (including themselves).
I just did a rough check on the map and using the scale on Google maps it looks like the shortest distance between the mainland of the west coast of Canada and the Queen Charlotte Islands (renamed now “Haida Gwaii”) is about 50 kms but most places the distance is more like 100 to 150 kms. And how would the hummingbirds know which is the shortest route? It’s a long way to go in one stretch without being able to land on anything but water.
I read an article on migrating birds how some reach enormous heights and glide on wind streams, also the amount of energy they use whilst makeing these flights… as to how they navigate ..?? .. with the experts saying they have built in means of detecting magnetic lines etc.. I just find it beyond belief… Now a humming bird that has to flap its wings so much more than a normal bird of its size must use a huge amount of energy making that flight… as to their navigation… it boggles the mind.. without compasses or GPS we would more than likely get lost…
I found it amazing to see them on the islands. They’re very tough for a tiny bird.
WOW! Great shots. Thank you dear Rob, love, nia
Thanks NIa..
In the second to last photo, he looks like he’s trying to hypnotize me. Those eyes are so mesmerizing!! Fantastic shots Bulldog :).
Thank you… it was a lucky find and took me a while to actually ID the bird… my SIL walked into the room looked over my shoulder and ID it for me… these youngsters.!!