Peregrine Falcon

Description. The male’s head and upper back are dark-grey, often head is blackish. Rest of back is slightly lighter. Forehead is slightly lighter than crown. «Moustaches» pattern is rather narrow. Black on cheeks and over the eyes is hard developed. Under parts are whitish, with very faint yellowish or pinkish tinge passed on flanks to bluish-grey. Under parts pattern formed by medium-sized on breast and large on belly drop-shaped or round-shaped spots, which sometimes transformed on belly into the cross bars. The pattern on craw and upper breast more or less reduced. The bars on flanks are not dense, broad and dark, blackish. Female slightly darker than male. Upper parts more blackish, on under parts the rusty tinge is more expressed. Under parts spots are larger and brief, the upper breast is almost always patterned too. Male wing length 289-328 (304), female 348-368 (354) mm.
Distribution. Breeds in Southern Altai at Markakol lake in 1958; and in Naurzum pine forest in 1936 (but doesn’t breed later); on Monrak in 1975; and in Kalbinskiy Altai at Skalistoye village in 1978. One flying juvenile dependent of adults recorded 21 July 2001 on Bukhtarma valley close to Berel village (Berezovikov, Rubinich, 2001). Occasionally breeds at Zailiyskiy Alatau where brood observed in July 5th 2001 at Gorelnik. Distribution of this subspecies on migration is not explored.

Description. Lighter than peregrinus. Male’s head and upper back are ashy-grey, slightly darker than rest back and scapulars which have the bluish tinge. Forehead is whitish, some lighter than in peregrinus. «Moustaches» is narrower than in peregrinus. Black on cheeks and over the eyes black expressed much less, white and greyish-white colours dominate on these parts. Under parts are white with not always present very faint yellowish-pink tinge. Flanks with very faint or lack bluish-grey shade. Flanks bars are rare, narrow and more light. Female is more pale, greyish above; white with faint yellowish-pink shade on underparts. Pattern on under parts is less expressed than in peregrinus, the craw and upper breast are without spots, but may have the dark shifts of feathers. Male wing length 315-325 (319), female 350-370 (362) mm.
Distribution. Occurs in Kazakhstan on migration almost everywhere.

Description. Rich and bright colored, with significant rufous as spots in nape and in underparts. Adults are dark with blackish head and narrow pale-greyish pattern on mantle and wings; nape and rear-neck rufous spotted; sometimes in fresh plumage the edges of mantle feathers and wings covert feathers are reddish, breast is rufous, flanks are greyish, dense dark barred. The first plumage is dark and colourful, usually with distinctive rufous edges of feathers, often with greyish or rufous pattern in shoulders, great wing coverts, tail feathers, often plumage greyish tinged; underparts in fresh plumage also much rufous with broad dark-brownish streaks (sometimes barred on flanks, especially in males). Less than Peregrine Falcons of northern group, male wings 288-312, female wings 320-355, average 294,9 and 335,8 mm.
Distribution. Sedentary in Mediterranean area, Iberian peninsula, NW Africa, Asia Minor, Caucasus, southern coast of Crimea. In Kazakhstan was recorded in aquatory of Caspian sea by A.S.Levin 02 of July 2016.