bird identification - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM

06/14/2005 11:27:31 AM · #1

saw this in our yard the other day. not the greatest photo - it's a 100% crop. couldn't get close enough, and it was in the shadows. i'm pretty sure it was nest robbing, though i didn't see it eat anything.
i am in northern vermont, USA, near lake champlain, and the winooski river. i would guese the size to be close to 18-24" tall with roughly the same wingspan.

i'm looking in my audubon bird book, but am thinking this is an immature bird. any ideas?

Message edited by author 2005-06-14 11:29:01.

cpanaioti

Canon EOS-40D

06/14/2005 11:29:18 AM · #2

It looks like a raptor of some sort. Maybe a hawk.

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

06/14/2005 11:32:01 AM · #3

i know its a raptor, the white markings above the eyes are not showing on any of the birds in my book...but i figure will be a tell tale clue for the bird enthusiasts.

rscorp

Nikon D70

06/14/2005 11:32:07 AM · #4

I'll send the pic down to my mom, she worked with hawks for years. Maybe by then someone else will ID it. Right off the bat it looks like a Goshawk but that would be too cool to be true.

Beagleboy

Tokina AF 12-24mm f/4.0 AT-X Pro DX

06/14/2005 11:32:13 AM · #5

Northern Goshawk.

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

06/14/2005 11:36:33 AM · #6

that's a good guess. though the markings seem off compared to the photo in my book. and the eyes were red, not yellow.

Originally posted by Beagleboy:

Northern Goshawk

scalvert

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

06/14/2005 11:44:29 AM · #7

Originally posted by soup:

...the eyes were red, not yellow.

OK... EVIL Northern Goshawk.

06/14/2005 11:52:00 AM · #8

that's IT ! ;}

Originally posted by scalvert:

OK... EVIL Northern Goshawk.

nova

Canon EOS-6D

Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM

06/14/2005 11:56:38 AM · #9

One of the 3 North American accipiters (goshawk, cooper's hawk, or sharp-shinned hawk). All of these are very similar in appearance, except for their sizes being larger to smaller in that order. Female raptors of a species are generally about 1/3 large than the males, so it's really hard to tell a male goshawk, for example, from a female cooper's hawk since the sizes overlap. My best guess is that yours is a goshawk. Here's a great website for North American raptors:

//www.wingmasters.net/species.htm

06/14/2005 12:02:30 PM · #10

thanks !

Beagleboy

Tokina AF 12-24mm f/4.0 AT-X Pro DX

06/14/2005 12:06:56 PM · #11

It's a Goshawk, believe me.

What gives it away as an adult Goshawk is the strong white eyebrow. Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawks don't have this white eyebrow.

Pretty sure that adult male and female Goshawks look alike. Juveniles are brown with yellow eyes and can be mixed up with perching Northern Harriers.

vtruan

Nikon D5100

Tamron AF 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical for Nikon

06/14/2005 05:19:39 PM · #12

Females on all raptors are larger than males. Did this bird put you on the ground. Goshawks are very agressive near nest and will attack humans. I have seen them here in Colorado many times and once watched one take a hat of a hiker near its nest. Quite funny, for me not him. They would be expected to be in Vermont, I saw several at Cape May and in Ohio in the fall. Van

jbsmithana

Nikon D300

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 12-24mm f/4.0G IF-ED

06/14/2005 07:49:41 PM · #13

As Beagleboy says Northern Goshhawk - the white supercilium is the givaway. The other two Accipiters do not have it. The red eye is also correct.

06/15/2005 07:02:57 AM · #14

i didn't seem to mind me being nearby. it was about 20' up in the trees, and i was about that dinstance from the base of the tree.

i stepped on a stick that was under the leaves, and it flew off in the other direction. i'm pretty sure it was trying to rob others nests, and isn't nesting where i spotted it.

blindjustice

Canon EOS-7D

06/15/2005 07:26:42 AM · #15

It looks like an unholy cross between a skunk and a snapping turtle. Nice photo.

06/15/2005 08:00:29 PM · #16

well there are some weird breeding habits in vermont ;}

Originally posted by blindjustice:

It looks like an unholy cross between a skunk and a snapping turtle. Nice photo.

nova

Canon EOS-6D

Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM

06/15/2005 09:33:27 PM · #17

You're fortunate, soup, to have seen this bird, even moreso to snap off a picture. I have never spent any time within their range and so haven't seen a goshawk in the wild. But in 1982 or 83 I was lucky enough to spend a day in Amarillo hunting with a falconer from California who had a gos. He had hunted with that particular bird for I believe 6 years.

The hunting method was from the fist (as opposed to from flight as a falcon would do). Accipiters are known for their lightening-fast acceleration, and it was just awesome to see him explode after flushed game. This particular bird had a history of bad experiences with jack rabbits. Jacks are BIG and can kick like mules. When game was flushed, that goshawk would bolt off the fist in pursuit. If it was a jack, he would make a lazy 180 and return, but if it was a cottontail, he was after it. Because this bird was so experienced, the falconer could actually remove him from a kill - which is unusual - and continue hunting. We caught and released four "bunnies" (ie cottontails). Oh, to have had a 20D that day.