Juvenile pale chanting goshawk

Thanks! Have a good holiday as well!

Haha yay! Have a great rest of the time you are there!

Hm... ok, well I think I'd rather avoid finding one (or it finding me rather!), but if it happens I promise I will have my camera ready! :)

Everyone that doesn't want to find one usually gets found by one ;) I of course spent my whole two weeks looking for them and can't turn one up!

I wouldn't have the first clue of where to, or how to, find a cobra I'm not going to lie. I think I should probably leave that to someone else! :p

Well can't wait to see what else you find, good luck! I was there this time last year and really miss the warmth haha. If you find any cobras I will be super jealous!

I am! Just until the 14th then back to the UK :/

That is annoying! Are you still in South Africa?

I'm definitely no expert - I find it difficult to keep them all straight too! My guide doesn't have any pics of the juvenile, which is kind of annoying.

Weird, my field guide shows them having pretty wide bands on the tail as a juvenile. Everything else on it looks right though. I'm sure they know what they're talking about more than I do though, SA has so many raptors it's hard for me to keep them straight!

ok, so I put this on a fb group and it turns out that its a juvenile pale chanting goshawk! Thanks for all your help Ashley :)

Yea based off of range, the back, and the tail, steppe buzzard was the only one that made sense to me haha. Glad you think so too!

Yes indeed we do! I think you might be right about the juvenile Steppe buzzard because this doesn't look like anything I have in my bird guide either. It says that the juvenile has a paler eye colour and that it lacks the terminal tail band, so it fits the description. But you're right its difficult without seeing the front of the bird. It was so far away from us, so this is really the best I could do! :/

Y'all sure do have a lot of faith in me haha. This is the third time I've looked at this bird. Best I can do is immature Steppe Buzzard. I've gone through all the raptors in my field guide, and it's tough without being able to see the front of the bird. Field guide is super handy though in allowing me to rule out a lot of birds just by range! Google photos of the immatures though and see what you think!

Thanks James! Yea hopefully Ashley can help.. I'm at a loss!

Possibly a Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus)? Hope Ashley can nail this one! Nice images

Thanks Josh! Just wish I knew what it was. I'm not very good with id'ying birds of prey as you may have noticed ;)

I love the photo where it is flying and you can see the tail fanned out!