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ALTHOUGH all are easily identified in the right circumstances, there are several middle-sized species that can give you a little identification workout as they fly towards you at a height. Expertise is not about telling a bird perched at close range, sideways on, in good light, but more about getting it right at a glance and at a distance. Maybe a near-silhouette in a pale grey sky.
Test yourself: a bird coming towards you with a heavy body, wings rather tapered, slightly swept back, angled or bowed, with steady beats, and moderately long tail. It could be Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Eurasian Sparrowhawk or Common Kestrel (or even one of several others such as Feral Rock Dove or Mistle Thrush).
Is the tail long (even on this foreshortened head-on view) and very slim? Perhaps a Common Kestrel. Or straight, square, narrow – maybe a Eurasian Sparrowhawk, especially if it has a flap-and-glide flight pattern. A broader, rounder tail, fanned a little towards the tip, might be a clue that it’s a Woodpigeon – a glimpse of the white band across the middle underneath could confirm it. A dark tail with a paler tip suggests the slimmer, lightweight Collared Dove.
Get it sorted out quickly, because it will soon be overhead and perfectly obvious! Identifying such a bird right first time at long range gives you a bit more confidence. But the more you look at distant dots, the more you try, the better you will get. If it turns out to be a Peregrine Falcon, so much the better. Rob Hume