Sparrow Hawk hunting

GyRob

GyRob

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Name
Robert
Edit My Images
Yes
taken wile out on marshland.
Rob.
IMG_0955.jpg
 
Cracking capture but I'm near certain that's a Goshawk.
 
i would love it to be a goshawk but i really think its a sparrow hawk .
Any others care to comfirm please.
Rob.
 
Hmmm, I'm not sure now, both have bars on the tail!
 
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To me it's too hard to call. We need an expert to lay this one to bed.
 
I've PM'd Cobra
 
admirable said:
I've PM'd Cobra
Click to expand...

Jim did indeed :D
the narrow bars on the chest ( just visible) and the white
flash over the eye says 99% Spar ( female) to me.
Its obviously an adult, older Gos's tend to get orange eyes, Spars tend to
get yellow eyes, ( though thats not a 100% guide )
and also flying
that close to the ground does give a little perspective to work from,
with the dried grasses.
A female gos would be around 4 times the size of a female spar
that is, Spars around 8-10oz female gos around 2lb - 2lb 2oz.
(males around 1lb 4oz to around 1lb 10 oz)
Obviously that means that 1% possibility its a Gos, but the lighter build and streamlined shape
says that its a Spar to me.

The "problem" with Gos's is that they are not a consistent colour, like the spars, they range from dirty brown through to silver grey.


Nicely caught BTW (y)
 
Cobra said:


Jim did indeed :D
the narrow bars on the chest ( just visible) and the white
flash over the eye says 99% Spar ( female) to me.
Its obviously an adult, older Gos's tend to get orange eyes, Spars tend to
get yellow eyes, ( though thats not a 100% guide )
and also flying
that close to the ground does give a little perspective to work from,
with the dried grasses.
A female gos would be around 4 times the size of a female spar
that is, Spars around 8-10oz female gos around 2lb - 2lb 2oz.
(males around 1lb 4oz to around 1lb 10 oz)
Obviously that means that 1% possibility its a Gos, but the lighter build and streamlined shape
says that its a Spar to me.

The "problem" with Gos's is that they are not a consistent colour, like the spars, they range from dirty brown through to silver grey.


Nicely caught BTW (y)
Click to expand...

Thats good enough for me
Many thanks
Rob.
 
Seems the experts agree its a female Sparrowhawk, either way its a lovely image well captured spot on exposure & sharp
 
defo a spar ( sparrowhawk), female, the male has a blueish grey tint to the back plumage

this is a goshawk

 
Not wanting to hijack this thread but just to let peeps know why it's not so easy to tell the difference,

This is also a Goshawk.

Note the dark brown upper body, the yellow eyes with black pupils and the white eyebrows.

goshawk800.jpg
 
all post are welcome as it shows how hard it can be to tell the diffrence ,
Nice Goshawk shots too .
Rob.
 
admirable said:
Not wanting to hijack this thread but just to let peeps know why it's not so easy to tell the difference,

This is also a Goshawk.

Note the dark brown upper body, the yellow eyes with black pupils and the white eyebrows.
Click to expand...

And that Jim, is why they are so damned difficult to ID from an image
with out seeing the relative size :(
That one looks like a juvenile (Gos) ( as the chest bars are incomplete) and sometimes they loose the brown colour in favour of a more silver grey as they get older.

Again still 99% sure I am right, however there is always that elusive 1% ;)

Are you 100% sure thats a Gos BTW?
I guess thats one you took and not pulled from the web as
there are some Gos's on Google that are actually Spars
Just confirming thats all (y)

As its quite unusual for them to have the
rusty brown "cap"
 
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Yep this is deffo a Gos. It was my mates, I took this about two years ago. I had a good side by side pic of it and a Spar together with a board between them for separation but can't find it. I do remember the Spars legs were longer and thinner.
 
Fair do's Jim (y)
Yep spars legs are like matchsticks
and the Muskets even thinner :)
 
Sorry for the hi-jack GyRob

My Spar (female) imprint of around 60 days and as scruffy as hell lol
spar_2-1.jpg
 
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