Teesmouth Bird Club

Is this just a very pale Kestrel? Watched for quite a while on the moor near Danby Beacon today  - showed all the characteristics of a Common Kestrel. See attached photo - sorry about the quality!

Hi,

do you have any more photos of it showing the back of the bird as well? Also did it hover while you were watching it? It definately looks rather strange to be a Kestrel but the other possibilities I can currently think of are all larger than a Kestrel.

Regards,
Jamie

The only other photo is attached but quality is very poor - it did hover, but did appear slightly larger.

Hi
It looks to me like some sort of large falcon, possibly with some Saker in it, hard to say from the pics but there have been several similar looking birds in the area in recent years, all obviously falconers escapes and many not safely identifiable to species due to the number of hybrids in captivity.
Cheers
Richard

We were up there looking for Dotterel last Sunday morning and saw a very pale headed falcon showing just the head above the heather. Yes it did look Sakerish, having seen them on fists in the UAE often, but the head was too small. The bird flew off and hovered and showed herself as a pale female Kestrel - panic over.

Glad someone else saw it and could confirm it was just a kestrel.  Many thanks.

Yep, looks very little like a kestrel, colourwise, but doesn't look big enough for any other falcon to me.  And the big falcons' flight is much heavier in my (limited) experience.