I would not expect a Northern Harrier in the Village of Trumansburg, because harriers are birds of open country, flying low and erratically over fields or marshes then dropping on prey. Harriers have extremely long wings as well as a long tail, and when seen from above in flight they show a bold white patch on the rump. Females are otherwise stripy brown but lighter below, which is superficially similar to immatures of several other hawks.
Hawks of the genus Accipiter (Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, and Northern Goshawk) typically fly among trees to grab birds. Sharp-shinned and especially Cooper's Hawks are far more likely around houses and bird feeders. Accipiters also have long tails, but their wings are not remarkably long. About size: The birds we see in the wild are not in the position the measurements are taken, we rarely see a wild bird next to something of exact known size, and the distance to a bird, which one needs to know in order to judge size, is usually hard to estimate as well. As a result, size is difficult to use most of the time, except in a general sense. One might say a bird is tiny like a chickadee, medium like a robin, big like a crow, huge like a vulture, or somewhere between those sizes on that general scale. The best way to use size is to compare an unidentified bird to a bird whose ID you know and which is within the same binocular view, or at least very close by and the same distance from you. Then you can look up the size in inches or centimeters of the bird whose ID you do know, and use that to narrow down the possible IDs of the other bird using measurements from the same field guide. Sometimes seeing an unknown bird perch where known birds have perched can also help. To further complicate matters, among raptors the females are generally quite a bit larger than the males. So I wouldn't worry about inches so much as whether your raptor was about the length of a Blue Jay (perhaps a Sharp-shinned Hawk or Merlin), about the length of a crow (perhaps a Cooper's Hawk), or considerably longer than a crow (perhaps a Red-tailed Hawk, which is common, or a Northern Goshawk, which is uncommon). Even so, the shape of the bird and the pattern on the plumage are your best clues. Since you mentioned both Sibley and Peterson, I recommend Sibley for both accuracy and consistently providing useful views of relevant plumages. A photo can also be an ID aid. Unless you are a professional with expensive equipment and great patience and skill your photo will probably look lousy, but don't worry. Your lousy photo may allow you or someone else to figure out what the bird was long after it is gone. --Dave Nutter On Mar 10, 2015, at 12:36 PM, Ellen Haith <[email protected]> wrote: > Right now I have what I presume to be a juvenile Northern Harrier just over > the back fence, about 15 feet from the kitchen window. S/he first took a > small, dark bird from the crew under the bird feeders, and proceeded to > demonstrate table manners in the neighbor's yard. I intend to go over in a > little while and see if I can identify the victim: I suspect Junco, which > isn't a very large lunch for this bird. > > I say 'presume' because I am fairly new to the business of identifying the > various hawks within my range. This bird is NOT the 26" suggested by Peterson > but would fit the 21" of Sibley. The white 'eyebrow' is a little faint. The > tail stripes are DEFINITELY irregular! The 'shoulder' area of wings is > certainly 'speckled', though I would sooner say spotted, with the > understanding that spots are larger than speckles. > > One of the yard squirrels was cheeky enough to climb the tree and approach > VERY near the hawk. Perhaps some words were spoken, but the mammal was > clearly not at all nervous around the bird, who actually raised a wing as if > about to fly. > > I feel inclined to eat a little crow here, since it is entirely possible that > it was this bird whom I reported as a Cooper's Hawk several weeks ago. In my > defense, that bird was much farther from my binoculars, and therefore harder > to pin down, let alone gauge size. > > ellie > -- > Cayugabirds-L List Info: > Welcome and Basics > > Rules and Information > > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave > > Archives: > The Mail Archive > > Surfbirds > > BirdingOnThe.Net > > Please submit your observations to eBird! > -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
