Excuse- more on tails

On my essay; Tails do not Nail — I did not complete the whole story. There is such a tail as a Goshawk tail. On certain Sharp- shinned hawks (SSHA), those hawks can have a Goshawk tail. Which means, Cooper’s hawks (COHA) will not have the Goshawk tail. This post is linked to the next post, coming up; What is Lanky.

In order to understand the Goshawk tail; The hawk should be in flight, near overhead, and the tail must be completely folded. Meaning; The side edges of the tail are parallel. If the tail is fanned slightly, then the base of the tail will appear “pinched.” Now your reading will be compromised. 

Now, on perched raptors, perched on an open snag, or perched on a wall. You want to observe the tail from the rear. In other words, the tail is hidden behind the wall. The most important aspect is to view the folded tail— straight on or right in line with the tail. Then if the tail— the base of the tail is very broad, compared to the body of the hawk, then that is a Goshawk tail!

The tail of the COHA is thin compared to the body of the COHA! Note: You can only get a good feel for the width of the folded tail when the the hawk is straight on your line of sight. When the hawk is perched on an open snag, you probably do not have to maneuver to the rear of the hawk.

However, in winter, perched accipiters can appear very puffed out while perched, so now the tail can appear very thin. The tail can now appear very short. Also, that particular accipiter can have a shortened tail.

So, this concept has a lot of value. It is concrete information. NB.