Must be a Sparrowhawk?

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familyburgoine
Blue Tit
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Joined: Sun Dec 24, 2006 5:12 pm

Must be a Sparrowhawk?

Post by familyburgoine »

Looking up the garden circa 1430 I noticed a Sparrowhawk sized raptor sat on a tree branch. It had its' back to me and I could just make out the barring on the tail, white eye stripe and the rounded wing ends - the thing that threw me was the amount of white, but effectively individual, feathers visible on the back of the bird, along with white on the back of the head - is this a common Sparrowhawk feature?
Neil Southworth
Avocet
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Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2006 2:57 pm

Sparrowhawk

Post by Neil Southworth »

John,

I have frequently seen white patches on the back of Sparrowhawks' heads, more often on juveniles or females. It's not something that gets much of a mention in field guides.

Neil
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