Accipiter, Flamborough, England (1 Viewer)

[Brett Richards]

Photographed this 'Sparrowhawk' in fading light this afternoon. Looks more like Levant Sparrowhawk, but probably just ad odd nisus.

Brett

 

[WalterRayle]

Nice.

 

[TheBlackGrouse]

See what you mean looking at breast, flanks and belly. Do I see a thin dark central line on the throat? Yellow eyes...

Levant is extremely rare, I can't find sightings in England, not even a vagrant?

 

[Bewick]

See what you mean looking at breast, flanks and belly. Do I see a thin dark central line on the throat? Yellow eyes...

Levant is extremely rare, I can't find sightings in England, must be doing something wrong.

Imo image quality is to poor to say anything about the birds markings and as you said Levant's do not have yellow eyes.

 

[Brett Richards]

See what you mean looking at breast, flanks and belly. Do I see a thin dark central line on the throat? Yellow eyes...

Levant is extremely rare, I can't find sightings in England, not even a vagrant?

Yes, I realized how very unlikely it would be, but I was just a bit puzzled by some of the features. I had overlooked Levant having dark irides. A relief to be able to put it down as an odd Sparrowhawk.

Brett

 

[TheBlackGrouse]

Forsman shows a ''rather spotted'' juvenile male in Finland (2016, page 277), that looks more or less the same as this one.

Over the years I've seen many juvenile Sparrowhawks in the Netherlands but they have finely barred breasts/bellies and varying patterns on the upper breast. Of course, you can't see them all very well so there is no reliable percentage.

Still, I wonder, do birds with heavy spots like this one appear more in Scandinavian countries?

There are members from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland (if I'm allowed to call that Scandinavian), what are your observations?

 

[rollingthunder]

Always good to flag up something odd.

Laurie -