The book by Stephen Debus says exactly the same words for both species: “Cere cream to olive-yellow”. So that does not advance the solution.
From: Steve Read [
Sent: Saturday, 9 May, 2020 12:27 PM
To: Philip Veerman
Cc: Ann Eldridge; Canberra Birds
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] ID Please
Is this an image where the colour of the cere is of assistance in identification? The cere looks greenish-yellow to me.
On Sat, 9 May 2020 at 12:21 pm, Philip Veerman <> wrote:
Ann,
That is a really good one to show the challenge of identifying these 2. I believe it is a Collared
Sparrowhawk: Based on: The beak is rather small relative to the head, the eye is clearly visible as round with little if any brow ridge appearing to shade the top of the eye, the profuse presence of white spots on the back and wings. This white is on bases
of the feathers and tends to often show in Sparrowhawks whilst moulting. I don’t see that any books mention this. Not sure why (probably because it is temporary) but you see it in lots of photos of Sparrowhawks in books, I don’t see this in Goshawks. The tail
is interesting. Given that it is moulting or the new feathers are not full length, the old feathers (underneath) that are showing do clearly match a forked shape, the new feathers at the top are still not long enough to fit the normal shape but clearly do
not fit a rounded tail. Only one toe is visible and that does not help in deciding. The red collar is really obvious in this one, I don’t know how useful this is but given the other features it adds to my choice. Of course you could measure the interval of
the spacers in the fence or the height of the horizontal rail and by scaling to the bird, you could get an exact size of the bird and that should help a huge amount in being sure and also determine the sex of the bird.
Philip
From: Ann
Eldridge [
Sent: Saturday, 9 May, 2020 8:37 AM
To: Canberra Birds
Subject: [canberrabirds] ID Please
Sorry forgot to add photo, have tried before but too big so this one should make it I hope!
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