Presumably a falconer's escapee . . .
Surely not a common bird in European falconry, if at all!
I believe this is the direct result of a lighting effect to the head...
I wondered about that too, but, trying to visualise it in 3-D I couldn't think of any way in a nice blue sky to generate such a dark head with such a neat and clear-cut curved shadow edge around the neck. Perhaps it was about to fly into a telegraph pole just out of shot? The other thing that makes me think it's mostly pigment not shadow is that if you lighten the image, most of it, even the shadowed underwings, can become very pale but the head remains relatively dark. An "aberrant individual" seems a more likely explanation - although that's not actually an explanation (and a cursory trawl through the web hasn't shown any similar Eurasian Sparrowhawks!).
Brian
Here's a shot I took in Montreal last year.....I wonder if anyone can ID it?
.....and this is relevant to the thread.
Here's a shot I took in Montreal last year.....I wonder if anyone can ID it?
.....and this is relevant to the thread.
Perhaps a new thread should be started with this Ken, and I can see where you're coming from with this.
However, imo, the dark head this Accipiter shows is more or less obviously not a result of lighting conditions. The eye and bill are fully lit, even with an apparent reflexion on bill/cere. The whole upper side of the head is being lit, and only the very lower part of the throat and "micro-bit" under the eye-brow (right over/in front of the eye) are in shade. Others might disagree.