Hi Matthew,
At the start of the breeding season (such as now) ravens and many others
heighten aggression to others. So an interaction with cockatoos is feasible.
However so is presence of a (White morph) Grey Goshawk, they are known rare
visitors here. So it was probably that. Apart from the obviously much longer
tail that you mentioned and a rather different shape and no crest, the
goshawk has much longer, sturdy bright yellow legs than any cockatoo (not
short black legs). In flight they are of course different. I have once on
the NSW south coast seen a white morph Grey Goshawk perched beside the
highway and even though we were driving past at a fair speed, I picked it
for what it was easily, and was able to turn around and go back to have a
close look.
There is an idea that in the northern part of its range the grey morph uses
association with the grey Topknot Pigeons as a camouflage and maybe in the
south the white form uses association with cockatoos as a camouflage. Just
ideas but there is some basis to it.
Philip
-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Larkin
Sent: Tuesday, 21 August, 2018 5:21 PM
To:
Subject: Grey goshawk???
Travelling west on William Hovell Drive, I noticed above me a pair of ravens
interacting with a white bird. Is it a Sulphur Crested or a Corella? A bit
strange, I thought - why are the ravens giving the cockatoo a hard time?? As
we turned right onto Bindubi, I got a somewhat closer look, and noticed that
the white bird had a noticeably longer tail than either of the previous
suspects should have had. We drove on, leaving the commotion behind, but I
was left wondering what, other than a white morph Grey Goshawk, would have
that general appearance and be generating that response from the ravens??
Any thoughts?
Matthew
Sent from my iPad
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