India, Feb. 15 -- The identification of raptors in the field or from photographs can present complex challenges. To do so from fading artworks of a medieval provenance is an even more confounding task. In these columns of January 11, 2026, I dwelt on the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, United States) promptly correcting the identity of the raptor in a Mughal artwork of c.1650 (Object Number 2009.202.217 in the Museums' Collections) featuring Emperor Shah Jahan and Raja Prithvi Singh of Chamba after I emailed the curator that it was not a sparrowhawk but a Shaheen falcon that had been depicted on the Raja's right wrist.

Following that, the Museums' Norma Jean Calderwood Curator of Islamic and Later Indian Art, Dr Aysin Yoltar-Yildirim...