Identification of Bird of Prey - Argyll (1 Viewer)

I hope someone can help me to identify the bird in the pictures. It has been visiting our bird feeding area trying to catch small birds for over a week now (August 2017). It seems a bit big for a peregrine falcon and the wrong colour for a buzzard (we have many buzzards in the area) so I was wondering if it could be an immature goshawk (although I think this would be very unusual for the area)?

I measured it from the photo against the known height of the bird table and it is about 35cm tall (not counting its tail). From the rear it does not seem to be fully fledged - so I think it is a young one. The area is rural Argyll (Cowal peninsular) and backs on to both wilderness (open forest and mountains) and farmland, with the house being about half a mile from the nearest small village. There are many wood pigeons in the area but no rabbits.

Many thanks

A Sparrow Hawk on size for me.

Cheers

Ditto to Sparrowhawk :t:

KenM said:

A Sparrow Hawk on size for me.

Cheers

Click to expand...

And on behaviour!


Shane

Tail projection is considerably shorter on Goshawk.

Peter

Many thanks

Many thanks for the replies - I hadn't considered a sparrowhawk because I thought they were smaller than this one is - but now I have looked at some pictures I can see that that is what it is. I guess my goshawk idea was just wishful thinking

Inadorel said:

Many thanks for the replies - I hadn't considered a sparrowhawk because I thought they were smaller than this one is - but now I have looked at some pictures I can see that that is what it is. I guess my goshawk idea was just wishful thinking

Click to expand...

Yes and no .... In this instance yes but i have saw them up Glen Fyne so for Argyll no