Today Heydi Lopes and I birded some of Brooklyn's coast. We had
intended on focusing our efforts on gulls and waterfowl. By the end of
the day, however, it had turned into more of a raptor-fest. We
finished our day with 8 species of raptor and a question mark next to
a possible ninth.
The bird that began the "fest" and the one in question was spotted
while we were walking east along Coney Island Creek. It was flying
across Coney Island Creek from Dreier-Offerman Park towards Kaiser
Park where it perched in a tree near the Northwest corner of the
soccer fields. My initial impression when it flew in front of us was
of a large buteo. Once it perched in the tree its long tail made it
clear that it was an accipiter. Several crows tried to scare it off,
which didn't work, and they quickly left. The hawk seemed larger than
the crows and almost the size of a red-tail. When we got close it
appeared that the bird was checking out a previously killed (and
partially eaten) Brant below. Walking around to the front of the bird
for a better look, my thought was that it was an extremely large
juvenile Cooper's Hawk, but there were some odd characteristics about
this individual. Compared to its very robust body, it appeared to have
a very small head. In addition, the face appeared to have almost
facial disks, like a harrier. The ground color of the underside was
not white, but an off white turning tawny on the breast and upper-
breast. It had considerable spotting on its back in an almost
checkerboard pattern. Most of the spots were tinged with tawny,
especially up around the shoulders. The tail was odd in that it seemed
to be missing a feather or two (not helpful). The tail banding was
very wavy. From the top side they actually seemed to be arc shaped.
Anyway, you probably see where I'm going here, but I have little
experience separating juvenile NOGO from COHA and would appreciate any
feedback. I've posted some digiscoped photos here:
http://tinyurl.com/6kuvamp
Heydi also took a bunch of photos and I'll give a link when she has
them up.
Oh yeah, the other raptors today were:
Northern Harrier
Cooper's Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk (dark morph, over White Island at Marine Park
Saltmarsh)
American Kestrel
Merlin
Peregrine Falcon
Good birding,
Rob
The City Birder Weblog
http://citybirder.blogspot.com
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