Brown Falcon

I was standing atop one of the larger dunes of The Spit and this lovely Brown Falcon was curious about me.

It was a long way off and came to me in short soaring bursts. It would hover, motionless except for slight tail adjustments, then with a flick of the tail it would slide away on the wind, before stopping to hover again. It repeated this technique several times until it was directly over me. Then it continued on its way. At no time did it have to beat it's wings, an amazing sight to see.

The females are larger than the males and have a wingspan of about 1.2 metres. This bird is an adult, as the juvenile birds are quite a dark sooty brown. Their scientific name is Falco berigora, and they range right across mainland Australia and also Tasmania.