Raptor in flight: young, male Goshawk from East Turkey on 5th of September (2 Viewers)

[bubo_bubo]

The image of a Accipiter was made near Erzurum in north-eathern Turkey. When viewing in Lightroom, my first thought is: Levante Sparrowhawk. This ID becomes more and more in doubt as viewing continues. The iris is yellow after all. That does not fit at all to the Levante Sparrowhawk. But the bird has the stripe lengthwise on the flanks and the belly. An superciliary stripe is not visible. The bird appears almost rust colored on the underside, with a strong contrast between the dark red underwing coverts and the lighter arm wings. On the upper side, however, the bird is light gray with several whitish edges. This suggests a young bird. I am almost considering a young Shikra, there I come to pictures, which show the circling bird with a clearly smaller raptor, a Kestrel. Then it becomes clearer to me: it could be a young, possibly male, Goshawk. Gensböl and also Forsman emphasize that the southern individuals can appear smaller but also darker, more reddish. The number of fingers does not really help me. I would not have expected a goshawk in this dry, open, barren landscape. Now I put the ID of a young male Goshawk with a young Lesser Kestrel in Birdforum.net for discussion.

Thanks for ID to the experts.

Cheers

Johannes

 

[Phil Bishop]

Goshawk for me.

 

[Biancone]

Juv Goshawk, nice...

 

[tconzemi]

Kestrel looks Common to me, very nice juv Gos

 

[bubo_bubo]

Thanks a lot! very helpful...