An Encounter with a Red-footed Falcon
The Red-footed Falcon - Falco vespertinus
A Rare Visitor to the UK
Rob Read
Above: The Red-footed Falcon is a bird normally found in eastern Europe. This female found her way to the UK where she stayed in Wiltshire for a few days. ©Rob Read.
The Red-footed Falcon is a relatively small bird of prey, roughly the same size as our Common Kestrel. It is a species which is generally found in eastern Europe, occurring in large numbers in Hungary, Serbia, and Romania where it prefers open woodland, farmland, and steppe habitats. Its diet consists of small birds, mammals, reptiles, plus large invertebrates such as dragonflies and crickets. The sexes are different in appearance and easy to tell apart. The bird featured in the images is a female. The male is blue-grey in colour with a red undertail and legs.
Similar to Hobbies that spend the summer months here, the Red-footed Falcon likes to take advantage of summer’s dragonfly larder, and they will often be found close to water bodies where dragonflies are numerous at this time of the year. This agile flyer catches them in mid-air or swoops on egg-laying adults, dexterously snatching them from the water’s surface. The head and wings are removed, often when the bird is still in flight, the rest being swiftly consumed before the next victim is targeted.
Above: Abundant dragonflies had attracted this bird and she was feasting on the larder! ©Rob Read.
Every now and again, the odd individual turns up in Britain and I well remember the first (and only one until last week) I saw in Britain when a bird showed up at Lakenheath Fen in Suffolk a few years ago. Last week, a bird turned up at a nature reserve in Wiltshire 30 minutes from my home. Normally, these birds stay for only a day or two, but this individual decided that she would settle for longer, enjoying her dragonfly feast as the reserve was teeming with these prehistoric prey items. I’m not normally one to go chasing rare birds as often they are distant and the photographic opportunities poor. However, in this case she was showing close to a hide so, in the end I had to go and see her, and I spent a lovely afternoon watching her catching and consuming dragonflies. I thought I’d share the photos of this beautiful little raptor, plus a few facts about the species.
Sadly, a familiar story is to be told in terms of this bird’s population as it is on the slide. Persecution, habitat loss and the use of pesticides are the main causes, resulting in the species being classed as Near Threatened globally, where it is estimated the global population is somewhere between 300,000 and 800,000 birds.
Rob Read. July 2021.
