twallace

Mai Po 米埔
21/10/2006
20D

tmichael

Presumably from the Chinese title this is Japanese Sparrowhawk.

Is it possible for us to know what its age and/or sex were judged to be?

Mike Turnbull

fforrest

今天早上香港觀鳥會環誌小組在米埔進行定期的鳥類環誌工，這些照片應該就是他們早上工作時所拍得的。根據環誌小組的意見，這隻Accipiter 有可能是赤腹鷹 (Chinese Goshawk)。

I think these photos were taken during the regular birds ringing conducted by HKBWS Ringing Group at Mai Po this morning. From the comment of the Ringing Group, it may be a Chinese Goshawk instead of a Chinese Sparrowhawk.

Below is their comment:

The shape of the wing is actually very obvious when comparing the photos. Chinese Goshawk has 4 "fingers" while Japanese Sparrowhawk should has 5. Wing tip of CG is at 3rd primary but should be 4th in JS. Our bird goes for the CS in term of wing shape.

Also, as described in some guide book the underwings covert of CS is "no barring in underwings covert and less barrings than JS in secondary". These features are shown in our photos.

Cheers,

Forrest

tmichael

Thanks Forrest.

I did think the underwing pattern and the underpart pattern looked like Chinese Goshawk soloensis, so I wonder why it was labelled "Japanese"   (in Chinese).

Mike Turnbull