Amur Falcon ( Falco amurensis, family: Falconidae)

Birds & Birding in the Kruger National Park South Africa. In Roberts 6 this bird was called Eastern Red-footed Kestrel

amur falcon kruger national park birds The Amur Falcon (Latin name Falco amurensis) is described in Roberts Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition. This bird has a unique Roberts number of 180 and you will find a full description of this bird on page 552 also a picture of the Amur Falcon on page 529. The Amur Falcon belongs to the family of birds classified as Falconidae. According to the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology the Amur Falcon is also known by these other names: Eastern Red-footed Falcon, Eastern Red-legged Falcon.

In the previous edition of Roberts (ie 6th edition) the Amur Falcon was called the Eastern Red-footed Kestrel

The map of the Kruger you see on this page shows the areas (coloured orange) where this bird has been identified. The basic information was provided by the Avian Demographic Unit based at UCT and I created the maps from that information ... the green dots show the locations of the various Kruger National Park Rest Camps

The Amur Falcon is neither Endemic or near Endemic to the Kruger National Park. It is however a rare summer resident

In terms of distribution of the Amur Falcon in the Kruger National Park you may not see it in all areas. Amur Falcon has been recorded in only 0 sections of the arbitrary Kruger Park regions I selected.

Identification assistance for this avian species ...

The Amur Falcon is a bird about the same size as a starling. The height of the Amur Falcon is about 30 cms and its weight is about 135 gms

You will find that the male Amur Falcon plumage and colours are different to that of the female Amur Falcon

  • Head is grey.
  • Eye is brown.
  • Bill is orange.
  • Throat is white, black.
  • Back is blue, grey.
  • Legs are orange.

This bird has normally proportioned leg length.

Main diet items for this bird ...

The Amur Falcon feeds on the ground mainly

Other Birds

Invertebrates

Breeding and nesting habits for this bird ...

The Amur Falcon takes on more than a single mate (it is bigamous).

The nesting habit of Amur Falcon is extra limital

Habitat and flocking behaviour for this bird ...

The preferred habitats for Amur Falcon are: woodlands and arid areas

You will normally see the Amur Falcon in flocks.

Names of this avian species in other languages ...

Xhosa ... Unknown

Zulu ... Unknown

Afrikaans ...Oostelike Rooipootvalk

German ... Amur-Rotfufalke

Portuguese ... Falco-de-ps-vermelhos-oriental

French ... Faucon de l'Amour

Dutch ... Amoerroodpootvalk

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For in-depth birding information please refer to these authoritative avian references ...

Robert's 7th edition number ... 180

The main reference source for this data was "Roberts - Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition" . Other references were "Newmans Birds of the Kruger Park" by Keith Newman published circa 1980 . Names in foreign languages were obtained from the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town website , www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za