Hi all,
A nice-looking juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk, to my eyes. Thanks for posting the photos, Ben. Separating juvenile Red-shouldereds and Northern Goshawks has always been a source of difficulty, with good reason. And I absolutely have learned to despise trying to ID tricky birds from one or two so-so photos, but a few things about Larry's photographed bird.
One, the shape/jizz doesn't look right for Gos. They have large, powerful bodies that seem to make the head look rather small in relation, and this bird doesn't seem to have that. To me, Red-shouldereds look more gangly. Sort of like Pewee Herman vs. Mike Tyson.
Also, the iris sure looks dark. On the vast majority of juvenile Northern Goshawks the eyes would be orange-yellow by now and glowering at you.
This bird shows the dark chocolate-brown smudgy malar stripe (extending from bill onto neck) of a young Red-shouldered. Gos lacks that and often shows a dark smudge behind the eye (auriculars), which this bird lacks.
The legs are bare and unfeathered; on Gos the feathered leggings seem to cover much of the legs on perched birds.
Those irregular blotchy smudges on the underparts look more Red-shouldered-like than the finer and more regular and copious streaking of a Gos.
The irregular smudges of white on the wings looks good for Red-shouldered, too.
Jim
Jim McCormac
Ohio Division of Wildlife
2045 Morse Rd., G-3
Columbus, Ohio 43229
614-265-6440
-----Original Message-----
From: Ohio birds [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 1:26 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [Ohio-birds] Photo of a mystery Hawk at Caesar Creek (taken 10/21)
So here is a link to one of my face-book albums. Sorry to post it this way but its easier for me. I received this photo from Doug Overacker who got it from Larry Jeanblanc. Larry took the photo and I post it here with his permission. They should be the first two photo's on my album (original and a crop I made).
http://mvnu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009065&l=c2c3b&id=164901416
I'd like to get some feed back on what people think it is. Or if you saw the Goshawk maybe you could let me know if this looks like what you saw. Feel free to just email what you think to me, or if its appropriate you can post thoughts on the list-server here. We shouldn't get too long winded about it on here, so maybe just reply to me and I can sum up what people are saying. I'll also post a link on the Ohio Birding Forum so you can comment on there with no problem. I won't say what I think it is on here (and bias your minds) but the question of course is whether this bird is an immature Northern Goshawk or if it is an immature Red-shouldered Hawk. Of course, I know photo's post a problem for fully accurate identification, plus a bunch of other problems, but it is a clue, and I think its fun!
Happy Birding,
- Ben
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