Gray Goshawk

Identificazione

The grey morph has a pale grey head and back, dark wingtips, barred grey breast and tail, and white underparts. The white morph is the only bird of prey in the world to be entirely white.<p>Grey goshawks are the largest Accipiter on mainland Australia, at about 40 to 55 cm (16 to 22 in) long, with wingspans of 70 to 110 cm (28 to 43 in). Females are much larger than males, weighing about 720 g (1.59 lb) on average (and sometimes scaling up to 990 g (2.18 lb)) while males average 355 g (12.5 oz). The population on the Solomon Islands is much smaller however, with a female found to have weighed 245 g (8.6 oz) and two males averaging 180 g (6.3 oz).

Tassonomia

The grey goshawk was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the eagles, hawks and relatives in the genus Falco and coined the binomial name Falco novaehollandiae. Gmelin based his description on the "New Holland white eagle" that had been described in 1781 by the English ornithologist John Latham. Latham in turn had based his short description on information provided by Johann Forster who had accompanied James Cook on his second voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Two specimens had been collected in March 1773 at Adventure Bay in Tasmania. The grey goshawk is now one of 49 species placed in the genus Accipiter that was introduced in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson. The genus name is Latin for "hawk", from accipere, "to grasp". The specific epithet novaehollandiae is Modern Latin for "New Holland", the name given to western Australia by early Dutch explorers. In ornithology the name is used for eastern Australia, especially New South Wales. The grey goshawk has no recognised subspecies.

Nome scientifico

Tachyspiza novaehollandiae

Autorità

(Gmelin, JF, 1788)

Ordine

Accipitriformi

Famiglia

Accipitridae

Genere

Tachyspiza

Areale e habitat

The grey goshawk is found along the coasts of northern, eastern and south-eastern Australia, Tasmania and rarely Western Australia. The variable goshawk was previously considered a subspecies.<p>Their preferred habitats are forests, tall woodlands, and timbered watercourses.

Migrazione

Specie stanziale

Comportamento

Comportamento migratorio: Specie stanziale.

Conservazione

Tendenza della popolazione: in diminuzione.

Tendenza della popolazione

in diminuzione