Sunday, July 18, 2010
Grey goshawks are white in Tasmania
Several times we have seen a large white bird flying around our place, and a check in Simpson & Day's Birds of Australia book revealed it to be a grey goshawk - which only occur in the all white version in Tasmania. Yesterday I walked down the hill into town and back (4.5km and 450m) and on the way, saw one of these birds swoop down onto the road ahead of me. When it saw me coming it quickly flew off into a nearby tree and this was the best shot I was able to get of it.
Another interesting fact: the white morph of the grey goshawk like this one is the only pure white raptor in the world.
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Yeah, in your face raptors in the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteTasmania wins again!
For some reason white seems 'wrong' for a bird of prey! From a distance they look like giant white doves ... but when you see them closer there is the rather large talons and beak...
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