Eleonora’s Falcon Falco eleonorae
My first encounter with Eleonora’s Falcon would have been in May 1983 in Majorca but all of my records since then have been in Cyprus from 1996 onwards. Timing is critical in spring with birds arriving mainly in late April. In 2004 we only had two singles on April 19th and 20th as we left on the 21st but in 1996 they were a daily sight from the 20th with up to 20 in a day by the 30th. Most of the attached images were taken in April 2016 between the 21st and 25th. The birds were clearly recently arrived and there was a lot of territorial display and fights over nest sites on the cliffs which combined with the lower temperatures made for some good photography. In early May 2018 there was much more heat shimmer and birds had settled into territories and were much less easy to photograph but there did seem to be more apparent 3cy birds present and inspecting the cliffs. One of the most agile and acrobatic falcons the screaming displays around the cliff faces are a joy to behold but not easy to capture.
A dark morph adult - Eleonora’s Falcon occurs in two main colour morphs, light and dark but there is considerable variation in plumages with some adult being very dark below an some much paler and some of this may be age related.
