Accipiter identification

This from a report on the internet: The Identification  of North American Accipiters.

Seventy man- years of watching and trapping distilled herewith : How to, and how not to, identify accipiters. Helmet C. Mueller, Daniel D. Berger and George Allez.

This you will not find in this article: Wing shape, wing holding, and wing movement. In other words, the article is about a dead specimen or a live, hand held bird. The authors do write of the mechanics of wing speed compared to wing structure and wing length. I say, wing speed can vary, depending on many factors. However, wing speed is only a small part of wing action.

The take-away: A very interesting, informative article. It will open the eyes of many birders. However, this article, scientific paper, is not about hawk watching. NB.

Raptor solving

 I will be posting some comments on raptor solving photos from whatbird.com. This does not violate my rule— I will not analyze your photograph for you and I will not analyze my many photos of NG for you. I prefer to let you stew in your raptor problems of identification. And will have a lengthy essay on the subject. In other words, we are dealing with third- party photographs.

Whatbird.com posted NOV. 21 2020. Sharp shinned Hawk? Sacramento, California, by Aiden. As of now only two people commented. Possibly no more will comment because the top gun has made his answer to the question. Tony Luekering is affiliated with the web site and is thought as an expert, he is not an expert on raptor identification. But, let me walk it back, in the field he may be an expert. I say that raptor identification from photos of raptors in flight can be difficult and many time I will lay off the question of — What species. Maybe Tony should have not tried to nail the species. This photo in question is not a Cooper’s Hawk. It is a Sharp- shinned Hawk. However, I should walk it back, it is possible to be a Goshawk. They are basically the same structure. But, some, maybe most Sharp- shinned Hawks have a “waist”. This bird has no waist. It is, therefore is, not a Cooper’s Hawk. Caution — be very aware of what the comments state on this Whatbird.com website. NB.

Female Goshawk

 Female NG at about 100 feet altitude. The road leading into Skagit Regional Airport, very near the highway, which is Highway 20. NB.