Goshawk or Sparrowhawk??

["Philip Veerman" <>]

Hi Julian,

I'm quite surprised it has generated a discussion. If ever I've seen an obvious photo of a Brown Goshawk that is it. Tail shape, feet, eye ridge, beak size........ Sure the tail shows signs of varied wear and some new outer feathers but to take that as evidence of fitting a forked or notched tail, rather than an obvious rounded one, is really stretching the evidence. Even if the outer feathers are not fully grown, the inner (central or upper) feathers just look too long to be short enough to be the inner tail feathers of a Collared Sparrowhawk (recalling that the outer ones would need to be even longer if full grown to create the forked or square shape). This notwithstanding the comments some years back from Paul Fennell about a "Collingwood Currawong" from a similar issue. The feet are clearly quite solid looking and the toes not as spindly and long and different as on a Collared Sparrowhawk. The eye ridge is typical of a Brown Goshawk and although both species vary, it would be an exceptional Collared Sparrowhawk to have such a marked eye ridge. Although it is mostly in the dark, the beak appears fairly robust, the Collared Sparrowhawk has a much smaller beak relative to the head. Inasmuch as there are visual differences I reckon all the all the signs suggest a Brown Goshawk and none of the features suggest Collared Sparrowhawk (without really stretching the limits of probability on all issues simultaneously).   

Great picture by the way.

Philip