identify bird of prey? - hoverer with swift-like wings?

[martin mills]

Hello, everyone,
I've just registered, and have a question already. I live in Portugal, but I think we've got pretty much the same basic birds over here.
I've just glimpsed a hovering bird of prey which looked slightly smaller but perhaps bulkier than a kestrel when sitting on a telegraph wire, and when it flew off, the wings looked a bit like a large swift's, that sort of raked-back arc look. It was a bit darker than a kestrel, maybe, but it was silhouetted, and it's the end of the afternoon, so it was hard to tell
Any ideas, anyone? Kestrels are very common here, but this didn't really look like one apart from the hovering.

Cheers,

martin mills

[AndrewA123]

hi, I've done a little search and believe it "Could" be a Lesser Kestrel.

Migrants in, the benefits of camouflage, Black-winged Kites and Lesser Kestrel v. Common …

The link above has a picture which seems to match your description (towards the bottom)

Hope this helps.