This is the female Peregrine known as a "falcon".

This last few days have been interesting at my Peregrine Falcon Site – I am licensed by Natural England to photograph there – but what has been disappointing is the apparent failure of the peregrine nest, however the presence of a breeding pair of Kestrels has been brilliant to watch.  Yesterday I watched both male and female interacting and taking part in courtship, both in the air and on the rock face.  I have to confess that I haven't really taken enough notice of Kestrels before, or rather I should say that I haven't had the opportunity to study them before.  Therefore, if they do go on to breed here and I am almost certain that they will, it is going to be very interesting.  The other day I had witnessed displaying by one of the pair with a lizard and I had assumed this to be the male bird and when I first saw this bird yesterday I thought it was the female again.  But as soon as I saw both birds together it was obvious which was which. Oddly the male has a heavily barred tail, he must be a second year bird and still retaining some of the juvenile feathering as both male and female juveniles have barred tails. So that was something that I have learned about this species already.  When they were courting, the male literally flew in at the female, in a play attack and she turned upside down and showed her talons to him to defend herself. I have read about this "play fighting" during courtship. Then they took to the air and very acrobatically swooped around like fighter planes in a dog fight.

This is the male and you can clearly see that it has a barred tail and not solid grey, a sure indication of it's age. In the picture below, the female has a totally different tail and is more evenly brown all over.

The photos are from a distance and its hard to get a good image from the distances involved. Below is the male perched on the rock face and its good to be able to compare the plumage of the two birds.