Appearance:

Largest falcon. Heavily built. Grey upperparts and white, speckled underparts. Juveniles with browner plumage than adults, blue-grey legs and longitudinal streaking below. Diffuse moustache-stripe, and the whole head seems dark at distance, lacking a defined cap. Rounder and broader wings, longer tail and bulky belly distinguishes it from Peregrine. Underside of wings with dark coverts in contrast to pale base of flight-feathers. Extremely powerful, but slower flight action than Peregrine.

Sound:

A coarse, drawn out, Peregrine-like "kaaawt", with emphasis on ending, is repeated in series. Much slower paced than in small falcons, and deeper and with different attack than in Peregrine. Also shorter, coarse warning-calls.

Alarm call:

Distribution:

Xeno-canto: map

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Sounds:Recorded by Andrew Spencer,http://www.xeno-canto.org ,CC license

Appearance:

Combination of striking black and white head and yellow underparts makes it rather unmistakable. Back greenish, tail and wings bluish. Outer tail feathers white. Sexes alike except for wider black belly-stripe in males. Biggest tit.

Sound:

Song highly variable, but usually consisting of two to three notes repeated in a motif. Same birds have many different motifs but generally repeat them many times before switching. Identified by its timbre and often metallic resonant quality, more than by actual phrasing (which is very variable). Often includes buzzing sounds in song. Generally more full-bodied and resonant calls than blue tit, and not so high-pitched. Characteristic Chaffinch-like "tink tink tink" often uttered by male.

Song:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC