Greetings, all.
Here are measurements for an Accipiter found dead yesterday on the back landing
here, beneath a hard-sheltered water bowl frequented by local passerines. These
measurements I’ve compared with the following refs (& their diagrams), reaching
an uncertain conclusion—
Menkhorst et al, 2017
Simpson & Day, 2004
Debus, 1998
Morcombe, 2000
*
The bird’s neck is broken. In the hand it feels broad-shouldered & “heavy”.
Puzzlingly the beak & cere are all-black, with just the slightest whitish
thread separating them.
Ventrally, chest-down the bird is finely barred rufous/white. There is a
chestnut breast-band > slight dorsal half-collar. Dorsally the bird is brownish
grey, & the head slate-grey. Brow-ridges are distinct. Tail is barred with a
ventral bluish cast.
Measures are in CENTIMETRES, taken with a retracting metal household tape:
LENGTH bill>tail-tip 37
WEIGHT 257g
WINGspan 56 ventrally (incl. chest)
Single wingspread 30 dorsally (longest flight-feather > shoulder joint)
TAIL appears notched —
17.5 dorsally (from feather-base), 17 ventrally (from below cloaca)
BILL 1.5 (+cere=2)
Middle TOE 4.4 (incl. claw): appears longer by one-third than the neighbouring
two. (Cannot be well-measured due to rigor, & damage.)
*
Two choices... What do you think?
Judith
SEQ 500m
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