Following the recent Swedish record of a male Amur Falcon (30th June–1st July 2005), rumours have been rife concerning a possible British record. In an effort to set the story straight, the BTO Ringing Unit can tell the story of this possible first for the Western Palaearctic.
 |
| Amur Falcon: Dumfries and Galloway, 1984. (Photo: F. Young) |
The records of the BTO Ringing Scheme include two ring recoveries in the UK of a French-ringed Red-footed Falcon. These recoveries were looked at recently whilst I was collating records for publication and something didn't seem right. Firstly, neither record appeared to have been submitted to the BBRC, and we only had scant information on the bird's origins. Subsequent research into these recoveries (and the original ringing record) resulted in a rather surprising conclusion, as it appeared that this bird was indeed an Amur Falcon. Amur Falcon (or Eastern Red-footed Falcon as it is sometimes called) was formerly considered the eastern race of Red-footed Falcon, but is now widely treated as a species in its own right.
The first the BTO heard of this bird was a typed letter on 5 September 1984 reporting a male Sparrowhawk found stunned on a road in Brandsby, near Easingwold in North Yorkshire. It had been hit by a car (on an unknown date) but later had recovered enough to be released. We duly sent the information to the French Ringing Scheme, but before we received a reply the bird was amazingly reported a second time.
On 17 September 1984 it was shot by a gamekeeper near Thornhill in Dumfries and Galloway after he'd seen it flying round an estate. Realising it was ringed, the gamekeeper would only agree to hand over the bird for inspection and photography if it were reported as "found dead". After agreeing, the body was shown to several local birders and photographed the next day. Following this the body was sent to a local taxidermist, but in a final twist, was lost when a new house owner had it destroyed!
The ringing details were eventually received from the French Ringing Scheme, but these did not tell the whole story. After investigation by various parties in France, it turns out that this bird had originally been brought to a UNCS rehabilitation centre (the French equivalent of the RSPCA) at Tonnein in southwest France on 12 May 1984. We've yet to find out why the bird was brought to the centre, but are still working on it. After 10 weeks at the centre it was finally ringed (as a Red-footed Falcon) and released on 25 July 1984.
It was whilst researching these two records that MG was sent a copy of one of these photographs taken of the bird, and was rather surprised to find that it was in fact a very obvious male Amur Falcon! This then raised more questions about why this bird hadn't been submitted to BBRC. The status of these records is thus still pending, as the Scottish record (as a Red-footed Falcon) was rejected by the SBRC and never passed to the BBRC nor BOURC, and the English record was never submitted to BBRC.
If accepted, these records would constitute the first for the Western Palaearctic, though there have since been a number of May records from the Straits of Messina (between Italy and Sicily) since 1995 (though only three have been accepted by the Italian Rarities Committee: a male on 29th April 1995, female on 4th May 1997 and male on 19th May 1998), and there are unconfirmed reports from Israel and Tunisia (and now the recent Swedish sighting which was well watched and photogrpahed).
Amur Falcon breeds in northeastern Asia, from Transbaikalia, southeast Siberia to northeast Mongolia and Amurland, south to northeast China and North Korea, and the population has apparently recently been increasing. In Hong Kong it is now an annual migrant, with around 50 records in the last four years, in comparison to less than five prior to that. The whole population migrates across the Indian Ocean to winter in southern Africa, from Malawi to eastern South Africa. The return migration in spring is thought to be along the East African and Arabian coasts. There have been vagrant records in the 1990s from Socotra, UAE and Ethiopia.
 |  |
| Amur Falcon: Oman. (Photo: Colin Murray) | Amur Falcon: Oman. (Photo: Colin Murray) |
The identification of Amur Falcon is covered in depth by Corso and Clark in Birding World 11: 261–268. Adult males are easily separated by white underwing-coverts. They also have paler grey cheeks and there is contrast with a darker grey moustachial stripe. The underparts are also paler than similarly aged Red-footed Falcon. From above, Amur Falcons have a pale grey tail which lacks contrast with the lower back; on Red-footed Falcon the tail is blackish and contrasts with the paler lower back.
Females and juveniles are more problematic. Adult female can be told from juvenile Red-footed Falcon by their bluish-grey upperparts, barred flanks and ochre wash on the thigh and undertail coverts. The underparts of female and juvenile Amur Falcon are white, compared to the buff underparts of juvenile Red-footed Falcon and this difference is also apparent on the underwing coverts. Adult females show whitish underwing-coverts with sparse markings. The underwing-coverts of juveniles are more heavily marked, thus resembling Red-footed Falcon. First-summer males are similar to first-summer male Red-footed Falcon, but the underwing-coverts and underparts are streaked with blackish and the belly is often streaked with blackish. First-summer females are almost identical to females. Juveniles have bluish-grey crown and upperparts with a rufous wash. Some can appear brownish to dark sandy on the upperparts. The blackish moustache is often longer and more tapering than juvenile Red-footed Falcon. The underparts and underwing coverts are streaked with blackish, though there can be overlap and some cannot be identified with certainty.
