[TN-Bird] Re: accipiter id - new question for me
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "TN-birds" <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2004 21:42:18 -0500
Charlie Muse and TN-Birders:
This is not always useful but it can help.
If your Accipter is near Blue Jay size it is a Sharp-shinned Hawk or
ff it is the size of a female American Kestrel it is a Sharp-shinned.
If you Accipter is near American Crow size it is a Cooper's Hawk.
It is probably rare for either a Cooper's to be as small as a Sharp-shinned
or for a Sharp-shinned to be as large as a Cooper's. They really don't
overlap very often in size. Peterson's hawks give female kestrels as the
same size as a male Sharp-shinned,
The following measurements are for body lengths and given in inches:
American Crow 17 to 21.0 inches (sexes combined)
Cooper's Hawk 14.75 inches to 19.25 inches (sexes combined)
Sharp-shinned Hawk 10.13 to 13.5 inches (sexes combined) (Peterson's = 9
to 11 inches male) and
(Peterson's = 11 to 13 inches females).
Yellow-shafted Flicker 12 to 14 inches (length longer than female
Sharp-shinned according to Peterson's).
Brown Thrasher 11.5 inches
Blue Jay 11 to 12.5 inches (sexes combined)
American Kestrel 9 to 12 inches (sexes combined)
Northern Mockingbird 9 to 11 inches (same length as male Sharp-shinned
according to Peterson's)
This works very well on a perched bird. In flight there are so many other
considerations so that is another consideration.
I used mainly Ralph S. Palmer's "Handbook of North American Birds (Vol.
4-5) Dirunal Raptors" for the hawks and Thomas S. Roberts' "A Manual for
the Idintification of The Birds of Minnesota and Neighboring States" for
some of the non-raptor species. Also threw in Peterson's Field Guide Birds
of Eastern and Central North America and Peterson's Field Guide Hawks of
North America.
The European Accipters and such I will leave to the experts and
professionals.
I thought you guys would find this a fun exercise.
Let's go birding....
Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
----- Original Message -----
From: "Charlie"
"TN-Bird" <TN-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2004 9:44 PM
Subject: [TN-Bird] accipiter id - new question for me
> Hi folks,
>
> We decided it was an adult male Sharp-shinned Hawk (SSHA). Small red
> eyes set far forward. Check. Top of head just slightly darker than
> rest of dorsum. Check. No pale band behind head. Check. Very thin
> yellow legs. Check. Fine rufous banding across the breast and
> abdomen, rufus cheeks, equal dark and light bands on tail. It was
> all there.
>
> So then we got out the field guides to see if there was anything to
> be learned of this entertaining occasion. Went throught the usual
> field guides and also Kaufmann's "Advanced Birding." But "Raptors of
> the World" gave me pause for thought. The illustrations of the
> different subspecies of SSHA stunned me. I've only ever birded south
> of Texas once, and didn't see this species. I had no idea what
> variability there is. Separating this guy from Cooper's was harder
> than from it's conspecifics.
>
> Good birding,
> Charlie
=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================
The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with
first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation.
-----------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------
To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, send email to:
tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society
Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s)
endorse the views or opinions expressed
by the members of this discussion group.
Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
========================================================
Other related posts:
