Young Collared Sparrowhawk/Brown Goshawk?

["Philip Veerman" <>]

Hi Lindell,

 

That is a hard one. They often are. Even with quite good photos. My vote is for Brown Goshawk. This is because the beak is fairly robust, the eyebrow appears fairly marked, the toes on the lower photo appear to be similar in length (wrap around the branch almost equally). The tail is hard to pick as is clearly not full grown and the tail feathers appear not lying naturally.

 

One thing though, you wrote "he". I assume that is just an assumption or word use. If it is a he and it is a Collared Sparrowhawk, they are very small (only a bit bigger than a B-f Cuckoo-shrike) and size alone at close range is enough to tell. If it is a he and it is a Brown Goshawk or if it is a she and it is a Collared Sparrowhawk, then you can't really tell by size in the field. If it is a she and it is a Brown Goshawk, they are about the size of a S-c Cockatoo and also obvious by size.

 

Philip

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Lindell [
Sent: Thursday, 4 February 2010 8:30 PM
To: Canberra Birds
Subject: [canberrabirds] Young Collared Sparrowhawk/Brown Goshawk?

Found this young Goshawk/Sparrowhawk (?) in the pine trees between the Capital Golf Course and Hindmarsh Drive. He was very restless flying in and out and above the tree line then returning to the same spot where there were two suspect nests (couldn't work out which one he may have belonged to) and calling continually. Didn't see any other birds in the vicinity. Now I'm not sure what he is - at first I thought he was a Collared Sparrowhawk - but now? Can anyone help please?

 

Lindell