Hi Folks,
I want to offer a general encouragement to be studious when identifying
Goshawks, particularly immatures and particularly in northwest Oregon (but
carefulness is advised any time and place and plumage!). AND a request to
make a particular effort to document (especially with photos), reports of
Northern Goshawks in the Willamette Valley west to the ocean. This message
is not necessarily very timely, as most spring migrant reports come a bit
earlier in the year, but I wanted to put it out there anyway. I'm hoping
that over time we will be able to better document and assess the status of
the species, in NW Oregon in particular.
I came to the point of deciding to put this out there because I had been
curious for a few years about the "numerous" reports from the Willamette
Valley and westward. The reports just seemed a bit over the top compared to
my experience when I lived in the Willamette Valley from about 1981 to 2009
(I think I had something like zero goshawks during that time). Then, just a
few weeks ago, in late April, two days in a row I had an accipiter over our
place in west-central Douglas County (interface of Umpqua Valleys and
eastern Coast Range), that drew my concentration. I think what drew me were
the relatively slower wingbeats (though it was mostly soaring), the broad
body and broad tail, tail with slight bulge at end, and while for the most
part I could not clearly discern color underneath, at some angles it seemed
rather silvery/shiny. I wanted to see if perhaps it was a goshawk. Here is
one photo of the bird, on the second day.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewghunter/albums/72157667738028411
As I continued looking at it, though, the shape and width of the rear body
and tail would change, the wings seemed rather long and even, and in some
of my other photos, I'm pretty sure I see "reddish" color, not silvery
(I've seen these look silvery in reflected sky light before). I concluded
it was an adult Cooper's Hawk. In fact the first day there was a Cooper's
Hawk calling, and I assumed the bird I was watching was the one calling.
The width of the rear "body" can be changed by hawks as they fly around,
and adult "territorial" Cooper's often puff out these feathers, which are
white in better light---AND, they can either really compress all their tail
feathers practically into one feather width, or like with this bird, space
them out more broadly. Amazing what they can do with those feathers.
Anyway, this experience, two days in a row at our place, along with my
"wondering" and curiosity particularly about NW Oregon reports of Goshawks
led me to look into it a bit more....
"Ah," I said to myself, "I'll just look for reports with photos in eBird
for the Willamette Valley and west." So I looked. I found many reports, but
only ONE with photos. And, well, I don't think the photos are of a Goshawk.
See what you think:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S17795966
It does look fairly heavily streaked (but also blurry and in shadow and
other accips can be heavily streaked), and somewhat stocky (variable and
hard to tell in a photo), but it has gleaming white undertail coverts, not
much differentiation between pp and ss (outer and inner wing), inner rects
with very broad and uniform dark bands (as in coops/sharpy), maybe some
eyestripe but nothing to yell about, and generally a darkish looking head.
I asked several others privately to give me their thoughts on this bird.
None replied except Dave Irons who said:
"...It's a pretty obvious Cooper's Hawk in my opinion. Structurally, it
fits Cooper's to a "T." Further, the broad equal width tail bands also
seems to better fit Cooper's. Looking at flight shots of young goshawks,
the pale tail bands are consistently broader than the dark tail bands,
which is clearly not the case with Hannah's bird. The spotting/streaking
below is also most intense on the breast and upper belly then becomes very
sparse on the lower belly and vent (good for Cooper's), whereas the
spotting/streaking on young goshawks seems to extend more solidly down to
the lower belly. Overall, [this] bird just doesn't have the bulk I expect
to see on a Northern Goshawk...."
I looked at a couple dozen of the MANY non-photo reports in eBird for the
Willamette Valley and west. They run the spectrum from NO NOTES AT ALL
(many reports), to notes that don't distinguish the report from other
accipiters, to a very few well-described goshawks (these mostly adults).
Does anyone have any photos of a Northern Goshawk from Northwest Oregon;
from the Willamette Valley westward?
I want to encourage/request folks to try to photograph identified or
suspected Northern Goshawks in NW Oregon---and elsewhere; the more the
better. I know that is a bit of a tall request, as many times the birds
are zipping by and you're lucky if you get your bins on them, but a fair
number of the reports are of birds soaring, so I'm hopeful someone will get
some photos in the future from NW Oregon.
I think it would help with more discussion of goshawk ID and help with
better documentation of the occurrence of the species.
Best,
Matt Hunter
West-central Douglas County
