That description fits a Brown Goshawk much closer. The Brown Falcon typically glides with clearly raised wings and flapping is generally slowish. But length
of wings relative to tail and shape of wing tips is important. Look at the books.
Philip
From: Dr David Rosalky [
Sent: Tuesday, 3 October, 2017 9:04 AM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Brown Falcon?
The grey skies this morning made observation of colours and patterns difficult when birds were in silhouette. And that left me with an ID issue.
A largish bird flew over my GBS area. It was about the size of a raven but its flight was quite different. Alternate bursts of strong wing beats then gliding with horizontal wings. I was pondering what it could have been, when clouds
of pigeons and cockies took to the skies, the latter being quite raucous. So, I assumed a raptor.
Only a Brown Falcon comes to mind. Anyone got a view about the ID in view of the flight characteristics, size etc?
David
