RAPTOR ACCIPITER 27/36 - Lesser Kestrel

It is a small bird of prey about a foot long in length . It looks very much like the larger Common Kestrel but has proportionally shorter wings and tail. It shares a brown back and barred grey underparts with the larger species. The male has a grey head and tail like male Common Kestrels, but lacks the dark spotting on the back, the black Malar Stripe ie a line angling back from the birds chin, separating the cheek from the throat stripe, The clear different is the a grey patches in the wings of the Lesser.

The Lesser Kestrel is a vagrant and less common to see in Peninsula Malaysia than the Common Kestrel which the latter being regularly sighted in Chuping Perlis in the migrating period from Nov- March.

Record sighting was just last  Jan- Feb 2015 at Batang Tiga Melaka. My catch was a bird in captivity and shot in the streets of Kobe Japan.