The photo from Robin shows just how hard
it can be to identify this hawk. Ordinarily you would say it’s a fairly
good photo but nonetheless the really diagnostic features still leave me
unsure. The size relative to the Myna suggests it to be a female Collared Sparrowhawk or male Brown Goshawk, so that doesn’t
help much, the end of the tail doesn’t reveal its shape so no clues there,
the brow ridge is small and that just suggests a CS, the beak is fairly small relative
to the head and that too suggests a CS, although the toes appear sturdy like a
BG but you can’t see all the middle one, so that is also unclear. I’d
go 70/30 odds on it being a CS for those reason and most importantly because
that is Robin’s suggestion and he saw it so got extra impressions than what
I see, which is just that photo (which is much better than any photo I have ever
taken of any hawk).
Philip Veerman
24 Castley Circuit
Kambah ACT 2902
02 - 62314041
-----Original
Message-----
From: Robin Hide []
Sent: Thursday, 26 February 2009 8:47 AM
To: Cog line
Cc: Ian Fraser
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Myna
thuggery
There is one less Mynah in the vicinity of Corroboree
Park this morning after this encounter with what I take to be a Collared
Sparrowhawk (?). Walking back from the Park towards Toms
Crescent I heard a lot of alarm calls and the hawk
suddenly flew off the nature strip carrying the struggling Mynah- it flew about
30 metres into a garden, watched me watching it for about 5 minutes, and then
flew off carrying the no longer struggling Mynah.
What was it the Duke of Wellington said about sparrow pests in the Crystal
Palace?
Robin Hide
