Red Goshawk
Erythrotriorchis radiatus
Heavily built rusty red raptor with large yellow legs and feet. When perched, the tail is longer than folded wings (Square-tailed Kite has wings extending below the tail). In flight note bulging trailing edge to wing. Tends to soar with wings back and head protruding. Extremely rare and typically limited to tropical areas near river systems in northern Australia. Please try to get a photo if you see one!
Identification
Plumage is generally rufous; on the head streaked with black and white, having more white on the face and throat; on the upper surfaces (body and upperwings) marked with black. Flight feathers and tail are barred grey, dark above and light below. Underside (belly and underwing coverts) are rufous with slight black ticking. The female has a paler belly than the male. Juveniles (first year) have less streaking on the head.<p>Adults have yellow irides (brown to yellow in the male); juveniles brown. The cere and skin around the eye vary from pale-blue in the juvenile through pale blue-grey to pale-grey in the adult. Adults' legs and feet are yellow; juveniles are pale grey, cream, or pale yellow.<p>Wings are long, broad and fingered at the tips. Its long wings are unlike the short wings of the Accipiter goshawks. Its tail is long and broad; square-tipped and about half its total length. It has a robust bill, slight brow ridge, and very heavy feet with bare tarsi having scutellate scale pattern.<p>Pattern of direct flight is described as "sometimes leisurely, rather heavy and crow-like, with sustained flapping". Pursuit is "powerful and energetic with deep, fluid wing beats, like a fast-flying Brown Falcon". It soars with wings raised in a slight dihedral, almost flat; glides with wings flat or slightly bowed; and sometimes stoops with closed wings. <p>Size is 45–60 cm long, with 110–135 cm wingspan. Males weigh 635 g, females 1100–1400 g. The female is similar in size to a whistling kite, and the male to a female brown falcon.
Taxonomy
The red goshawk was first described by the English ornithologist John Latham in 1801 under the binomial name Falco radiatus.<p>The species used to be regarded as a very large member of the goshawk subfamily, Accipitrinae, but it is now believed that the resemblance to these other birds is convergent. Experts now group the red goshawk with the superficially dissimilar black-breasted buzzard Hamirostra melanosternon and square-tailed kite Lophoictinia isura as one of the Australasian old endemic raptors. It is believed that the ancestors of these birds, possibly together with a handful of species from South-east Asia and Africa, occupied Gondwana and over millions of years have diverged into their current forms.<p>Gene sequencing studies have found a relationship between Hamirostra and Lophoictinia, however samples had not been obtained from Erythrotriorchis.
- Scientific name
- Erythrotriorchis radiatus
- Authority
- (Latham, 1801)
- Order
- Accipitriformes
- Family
- Accipitridae
- Genus
- Erythrotriorchis
Range and habitat
Sites identified by BirdLife International as being important for red goshawk conservation are Lilyvale in Far North Queensland, Kakadu Savanna and the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory, and Mornington Sanctuary in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The nest is built in an exposed fork of a tall emergent tree. It is a stick platform lined with green leaves, 60–120 cm across and 30–50 cm deep.<p>The egg-laying season is from May to October in the tropical north, and August to October in the east. Incubation takes 40 days, the nestling period 51–53 days, and juveniles remain dependent for 2–3 months.<p>Red goshawks eat mostly birds, especially parrots and pigeons; rarely they also prey on mammals, reptiles, and large insects.<p>Early and late in the day, they hunt from concealed perches in the trees. In the middle of the day, they use long transects, quartering through or above the canopy, or search from a high soaring position. They attack by a stealthy glide, direct chase, or may stoop from a height.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Gray-headed Albatross
Thalassarche chrysostoma
Rarely found north of cold subantarctic waters; ranges south to pack-ice in summer. Adult has a gray head, thick black underwing margins like much commoner Black-browed Albatross. Immatures look similar to Black-browed overall, but told by black bill that soon develops yellow along top, and often with variable gray hood. Yellow bill edges narrower than the more lightly built Buller’s Albatross, which occurs to the north but is often mistaken for Gray-headed.
Sooty-crowned Flycatcher
Myiarchus phaeocephalus
Fairly large flycatcher found mainly in dry forest in western Ecuador and northwestern Peru. It has a gray-brown crown (often raised to look “bushy”), an ashy throat, and a yellow belly. Dark head helps distinguish it from kingbirds. This species is one of many in the genus Myiarchus, members of which are notoriously difficult to identify by plumage alone; this is the only one in most of its range that prefers dry forest, but it overlaps with Brown-crested Flycatcher in the Marañon drainage. Sooty-crowned has a grayer crown and more chestnut in the wings and tail. Calls include a nasal, whiny whistle, a short rasp, and a creaky “wi-dit.”
Siffling Cisticola
Cisticola brachypterus
Small, remarkably nondescript cisticola. The back can be vaguely streaked in breeding plumage, and is more heavily streaked in non-breeding plumage. There are two bands across the tip of the tail, one buff and one black. Found in a variety of grassy habitats, including savanna, forest edge, woodland openings, and scrub. The song is two or three high notes in a descending series: “tsee-tree-tro.” Also gives a faster, rollicking series of many consecutive notes. Very similar to Rufous Cisticola, but generally has colder and browner coloration, and shows some streaking on the back.
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