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:

Adult breeding birds unmistakable. White mask, warm rufous brown throat and underparts. Bill noticeably heavier than in Red-necked Phalarope in all plumages and and ages. Female more brightly coloured than male (reversed dimorphism). 1st winter birds differs from Red-necked in white fore-crown, while fresh juveniles have less contrasting markings on back. Both mentioned characters are often difficult, or impossible to use at a distance. With experience and practise, one can use the powerful flight and more stocky build as field marks.

Sound:

Flight-call a short and sharp, Coot-like "kit". Cleaner and higher pitched than Red-necked Phalarope. Display sound a rolling cooing, at stable pitch. Other calls: a hissing like the squeezing of a rubber duck, rising quickly in pitch and ending abruptly.

Contact calls:

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

CC

CC-sounds,www.xeno-canto.org,Frank Lambert,http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/