Kestrels and lesser kestrels

Since I arrived in Riyadh last September, I have been seeing and photographing kestrel on the pivot bars of the fields near al Hayer. A recent example is the female bird captured last Thursday.

The weekend before I had taken another photograph of another kestrel, this time male, at virtually the same place.  

female kestrel photographed last Thursday

Because I have shown so many kestrel shots on a pivot bar, I decided in the blog of Monday 16th April (but photographed on Thursday 13th) to show the supposed male kestrel hovering instead. 

hovering bird

However, a sharp eyed reader told me that my hovering bird was possibly a lesser kestrel and that I had assigned it wrongly.

lesser kestrel on a pivot bar

So I scrambled to find my photos of the bird when perched. Sure enough it is definitely a lesser kestrel.  My suspicion is that lesser kestrel is under-reported here.