Lanner Falcons are scarce breeding birds in Europe but they are more numerous in sub-Saharan Africa. So it was a species I was hoping to see and photograph in Ethiopia but I got better than I could have hoped for. This male was flying round at eye-level in the morning sunshine with steep nesting cliffs in the background. I always think flying birds of prey look better without a sky background.
You can see that they are closely related to Peregrine but are a little more lightly built, with a rusty crown and less marked underparts. This one was in the Simien Mountains in northern Ethiopia.
Taken with a Nikon D500 and a 300mm f4 lens with a 1.4x converter. 1/2500 second f5.6 ISO 1600 (10 February 2017)
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Seriously cool bird (and image)