NationStates Jolt Archive

So I was walking home from work through the park near my flat, and I came across this dead bird of prey lying next to the path. Now I don't have a scoobies about all the different types of birds of prey, but I figured someone on general might, so here is a picture of said bird.
http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/6336/4025vi4.jpg
It isn't graphic, no blood etc., merely a picture of a bird bereft of life, but if you're offended by such things I wouldn't click on the link.

Feel free to use the thread to comment on any encounters with the wild you may have had.

No clue.

It looks like a buzzard, although I couldn't tell you having only really seen them from a distance. Which Country are you in?

EDIT: OK, so image searching on google may have proved me a little wrong. How big is it, etc.

I think it is a species of sparrowhawk. I'll ask around and get back to you.

It looks like a buzzard, although I couldn't tell you having only really seen them from a distance. Which Country are you in?

I live in Bath in the south west of England.
I think it is a species of sparrowhawk. I'll ask around and get back to you. Thanks very much, but I wouldn't want you to go to any trouble. It was just idle curiosity; I saw a interesting dead bird and realised that interesting birds, alive or dead, were bound to be some generalite or other's bag.

It looks like a buzzard, although I couldn't tell you having only really seen them from a distance. Which Country are you in?

EDIT: OK, so image searching on google may have proved me a little wrong. How big is it, etc.Buzzard is my first guess, too. I looked some other kinds of bird up and the buzzard was the only one whose belly/chest feathers had that kind of pattern.

Alas...:I think it is a species of sparrowhawk. I'll ask around and get back to you.I think this probably correct. The bird in the pic has the same kind of yellow lined "eyelids" that they have, unlike buzzards. And it does look pretty much like a sparrowhawk (http://web.ukonline.co.uk/gary.cox/images/sparrowhawk-4628.jpg), it seems.

This reminds me of a very funny story:


Twitchers watch robin served rare

Birdwatchers from all over Britain who gathered in Grimsby to catch sight of a rare American robin were horrified to see it eaten by a passing sparrowhawk.
They were still setting up their cameras when the predator swooped down from a row of drab factories and warehouses on an industrial estate.

The young bird, from the southern US, "didn't really live to enjoy her moment of fame," a twitcher told the Guardian.

The robin's vivid red breast made it an obvious candidate for a lunch date.

"It was a terrible moment," Graham Appleton, of the British Trust for Ornithology, which had spread news of the bird's arrival, told the newspaper.

The robin, whose scientific name Turdus migratorius derives from its long-distance travels within America, was probably blown across the Atlantic after being "caught up in a jetstream", Mr Appleton added.

A member of the thrush family, with oily-black wings and tail, the American robin is as big as a British blackbird.



BTW I have concluded that the bird in question is a Female Eurasian Sparrowhawk.

http://www.garden-birds.co.uk/birds/images/sparrowhawkf.jpg

Might be a sparrowhawk. Looks a little too small to be a buzzard.

Thanks very much all, for your help. I feel a bit better knowing that it isn't some super rare protected species.

I think it is protected but not rare. Not any more. There are so many that the sparrow population is falling like a stone.

Thanks very much all, for your help. I feel a bit better knowing that it isn't some super rare protected species.

I mean...er...it's a cross between an albatross and a golden eagle! Yes.

Thanks very much all, for your help. I feel a bit better knowing that it isn't some super rare protected species.

It's generally safe to assume that anything you see lying dead by the edge of the road probably isn't an endangered species. It's a rough and slightly counterintuitive but nonetheless useful rule of population biology. :D

to me it looks like it hit something

So I was walking home from work through the park near my flat, and I came across this dead bird of prey lying next to the path. Now I don't have a scoobies about all the different types of birds of prey, but I figured someone on general might, so here is a picture of said bird.
http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/6336/4025vi4.jpg
It isn't graphic, no blood etc., merely a picture of a bird bereft of life, but if you're offended by such things I wouldn't click on the link.

Feel free to use the thread to comment on any encounters with the wild you may have had.

I suspect it's some form of accipiter. I'm doing some comparisons...

Edit: It's a Eurasian Sparrowhawk:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Sparrowhawk-Male.JPG

Thems Good Eatin'! :)

It's a Norwegian Blue.

a goshawk or a merlin maybe?

It's a Norwegian Blue.

This parrot is dead! ;)

i saw one like those today. it was trying to catch a pigeon 2 meters from me. it was pretty spectacular.

Looks like you already have your answer, but I wanted to just throw in that its a very beautiful specimen.

Looks like a lesser kestrel.

A few have mentioned buzzard. I thought buzzards had a long neck? I dunno what kind it is though. I love birds. They are awesome! :)

This reminds me of a very funny story:



BTW I have concluded that the bird in question is a Female Eurasian Sparrowhawk.

http://www.garden-birds.co.uk/birds/images/sparrowhawkf.jpg

Turdus migratorus?

It sounds like the ornithologist who named it wanted revenge on the species for getting shit on.

It's a Norwegian Blue.

Lovely plumage.

No obviosly it is an evil monkey from the wizard of Oz.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H6DSoqZz_s

Im sorry, but this just reminded me of something. >_>

This reminds me of a very funny story:


Twitchers watch robin served rare

Birdwatchers from all over Britain who gathered in Grimsby to catch sight of a rare American robin were horrified to see it eaten by a passing sparrowhawk.
They were still setting up their cameras when the predator swooped down from a row of drab factories and warehouses on an industrial estate.

The young bird, from the southern US, "didn't really live to enjoy her moment of fame," a twitcher told the Guardian.

The robin's vivid red breast made it an obvious candidate for a lunch date.

"It was a terrible moment," Graham Appleton, of the British Trust for Ornithology, which had spread news of the bird's arrival, told the newspaper.

The robin, whose scientific name Turdus migratorius derives from its long-distance travels within America, was probably blown across the Atlantic after being "caught up in a jetstream", Mr Appleton added.

A member of the thrush family, with oily-black wings and tail, the American robin is as big as a British blackbird.


BTW I have concluded that the bird in question is a Female Eurasian Sparrowhawk.

http://www.garden-birds.co.uk/birds/images/sparrowhawkf.jpg

XD Rare? Those things are a dime a dozen, maybe you don't seem em very often across the pond, but they're one of the most common birds around on the US east coast.

XD Rare? Those things are a dime a dozen, maybe you don't seem em very often across the pond, but they're one of the most common birds around on the US east coast.

it was rare because it was in england, something they would'nt see in their home country, it was a long way from home