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[Oversea] Please help to identify these raptors

Please help to identify these raptors

Would experienced birdwatchers please help to identify these raptors?
All were seen in Inner Mongolia in Sep2014.
Sorry for the poor quality photos.

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Seems like lots of people have looked at this post but no one has waded in.
Although I would not claim to be an expert on anything, I can help a bit.

Images 1 a,b,c . A harrier species with a clear white rump The broad hand points to one of 2 species - Hen or Pied. I have very little experience with Pied, except when I was a child (many years ago)we used to call all the ‘white rumped ringtails’ at Mai Po ‘Hen’ , when in fact they have now been shown to be ‘Pied’.  In other words, the field guides have been quite poor at differentiating them! I do have reasonable experience with Hen Harrier and this bird looks a bit  different from what I would expect in the following ways:

1.        Image 1c looks a bit short tailed for Hen.
2.        The upper wing coverts are more rufous than I would expect for Hen
3.        I would be surprised if Hen could show  only 3 prominent dark bars on the upper tail(usually shows 4)
So , my money is on a Pied Harrier for raptor 1.

Raptor 2-
This looks good for Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo vulpinus) . Very similar to this image - http://orientalbirdimages.org/se ... _Family_ID=&p=1


Raptor 3 - looks pretty typical of Eastern Buzzard.

Raptor 4-  The prominent feature is the dark carpel patch on a very pale broad underwing. The only 2 raptors I can think of in the region are a Buzzard sp or an Osprey . Clearly this is not an Osprey! So, I think this is probably another Eastern Buzzard but I may be way off target here.

Raptor 5 is a Eurasian Kestrel. The moustache stripe is too prominent for Lesser Kestrel.

Hope this sheds some light or opens up more debate.
Best wishes
Eric

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Hello Eric,

Thank you very much for your reply and detailed explanation.

I understand that these images are not good and do not show the birds' features clearly, so it is difficult to identify them.

I am grateful for your help.

Cherry

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