Besra - BirdForum Opus

Photo © by Karim Madoya
Tambunan, Sabah, Malaysia, 25 May 2008

Tachyspiza virgata

Accipiter virgatus

Identification

Very young juvenile
Photo © by robby thai
Mae Wong River, Mae Wong National Park, Thailand, 12 May, 2015

24–36 cm (9½-14¼ in)

• Ashy blue-grey upperparts
• White below crossed barred with rusty brown
• Dark vertical throat stripe
• Short broad wings
• Long tail; broadly barred black
  

Female is larger and has browner upperparts
Juvenile: dark brown upperparts. White underparts, streaked breast and belly, barred flanks. Long tail, broadly barred black

Distribution

South Asia from Pakistan and India to south China and Indonesia.

Taxonomy

Besra , Japanese Sparrowhawk and Brown Goshawk seem to be closely related. The first two have in the past been considered conspecific.

Subspecies

10 subspecies are recognized^[1]:

• A. v. affinis:

• Northern India and Nepal to central China and Indochina; with deletion of subspecies nisoides, affinis presumably also include birds from Myanmar, Thailand and northern Malay Peninsula

• T. v. fuscipectus:

• Mountains of Taiwan

Artwork by tuck.hong

• T. v. besra:

• Southern India and Sri Lanka

• T. v. abdulalii:

• Andaman and Nicobar Islands

• T. v. confusus:

• Philippines (Luzon, Mindoro, Negros and Catanduanes)

• T. v. quagga:

• Philippines (Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, Samar, Siquijor and Mindanao)

• T. v. rufotibialis:

• Northern Borneo

• T. v. vanbemmeli:

• Sumatra

• T. v. virgatus:

• Java and Bali

• T. v. quinquefasciatus:

• Flores (Lesser Sundas)

The name nisoides was seemingly retracted by the author who considered the bird he had described it from as belonging to Japanese Sparrowhawk.

Habitat

Dense montane forests; in winter open woodland (preferably with large trees) including groves, savanna and cultivated areas.

Behaviour

Breeding

They nest in trees, building a new nest each year. The clutch consists of 2-5 eggs.

Diet

Their diet consists mostly of birds with the addition of dragonflies, lizards and mammals.

References

1. Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, M. Smith, and C. L. Wood. 2024. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2024. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. AvianWeb
3. Birdforum Member observations
4. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved September 2016)
5. Orta, J. and J. S. Marks (2020). Japanese Sparrowhawk (Accipiter gularis), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.japspa1.01
6. Farnsworth, G., G. A. Londono, J. U. Martin, K. C. Derrickson, and R. Breitwisch (2020). Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (A. F. Poole, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.normoc.01

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Besra. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 21 March 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Besra

External Links

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