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Must be a Sparrowhawk?

Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 4:16 pm
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?

Sparrowhawk

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 3:21 pm
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