Comments:
This month was tough. Only 25% of the responses were correct and the
incorrect answers included more species than any quiz so far. Here is
the answer by this months’ guest, Jerry Liguori:
At first glance, this month's quiz bird appears to have long, pointed,
falcon-like wings and a brownish upperside with a banded tail. Well,
that description suggests it is a Merlin. But, is the shape and
plumage truly a falcon? From some perspectives, the shape of a bird
can appear unorthodox. For instance, birds viewed wing-on appear
stockier than usual, and birds viewed head-on or going away appear
slimmer / longer-winged than usual. What does the plumage tell us
about this bird? First off, the eyes are yellow, and since all North
American falcons have dark eyes, we can rule out any falcon. But some
may still wonder why this bird is not a Merlin because it
superficially resembles one. Well, the nape is rufous, the upperwing
coverts are rufous-tipped, the pale bands on the tail are broad, not
narrow, there is a slight bulge along the secondaries that falcons
lack, Merlins have spots along the topside of the primaries, not
bands, the bird lacks "sideburns", and the overall color is less slaty
than that of a Merlin.
In fact, the tail pattern of only a few dark bands with broad paler
bands' fits only the accipiters, so the bird is an accipiter, and a
juvenile due to its brownish upperside. Juvenile Broad-winged Hawks
can have a similar tail pattern but they typically have numerous bands
on the tail, show a large head and bill, broad back, lack uniform
streaking on the chest, show pale mottling along the upperwing
coverts, and lack the rufous nape (along with a few other minor head
plumage differences).
So, which accipiter is this? Goshawk can be eliminated because this
bird lacks the slaty and buffy tones along the upperside, and buffy
head and auriculars (cheeks) that juvenile Goshawks show. Besides the
eye-line is not well-defined, the tail appears relatively short,
squared, and darker overall than on Goshawks. Then, how do we know if
this is a Cooper's or Sharp-shinned Hawk? Well, the tail tip on
Cooper's Hawks is rounded when folded (only worn or molting Cooper's
Hawks show square-tipped tails) and has a broad, white tip, which this
bird lacks. Cooper's Hawks also have an extremely long tail, a larger
head and bill (head is typically paler as well), show prominent buffy
edges to the uppertail coverts, and have yellow-green eyes as
juveniles (not bright yellow). Therefore, our quiz bird is a
juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk.
Thanks again to
Jerry for
doing the quiz for us.
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