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White Goshawk

Accipiter novaehollandiae

Description:

The white morph of the Grey Goshawk, which is known as the White Goshawk, is a strongly built, medium-sized bird of prey in the family Accipitridae This bird was sitting in a tree just up the slope from our house. I spotted it because it was being mobbed by Forest ravens. It finally had enough and it flew up and caught a thermal, eventually leaving the ravens below.

Habitat:

The White Goshawk prefers wetter areas than where we live. We were very surprised to see it here. Especially since a Brown Falcon and a Brown Goshawk frequently spar over their respective boundaries at our property.

Notes:

The only all white bird of prey. Only the white form is found in Tasmania.

1 Species ID Suggestions

AltoCumulus
AltoCumulus 12 years ago
Accipiter novaehollandiae


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8 Comments

Japh
Japh 11 years ago

Just noticed this spotting. Nice one, Lori! You may see I've recently had a White Goshawk visiting our house (we're near the water). Hoping to see it regularly :)

EmilyMarino
EmilyMarino 11 years ago

Interesting, I didn't realize there was more then one bird. I just googled the species. Beautiful birds! I love the ALL white morph! Truly unique! The grey ones are beautiful too!

lori.tas
lori.tas 11 years ago

Thanks Emily. Obviously I would have liked to have seen the goshawk closer, but these bird "combats' usually happen far up and end up far off. As the Grey/White goshawk usually lives near water I was unusually lucky to see one at our place. The only other times I have seen them, they were sitting in a tree on the bank of a river.

EmilyMarino
EmilyMarino 11 years ago

Wow, fantastic spotting Lori.tas!

lori.tas
lori.tas 12 years ago

Since the ravens live here, and the goshawk was the interloper, I'd be hard pressed to name either as "good or evil", but get your analogy. I've added more photos to the wedge tail eagle versus ravens spotting. One thing you cans say about the ravens, they take on everybody.

Noe and Pili
Noe and Pili 12 years ago

It looks like a fight between good and evil in a fantasy film, the light against the darkness. It remembers me when nazgul were following Frodo in The Lord Of The Ring film. It is a very epic spotting! :D

lori.tas
lori.tas 12 years ago

We have the White and the Brown Goshawk in Tasmania, and a Red Goshawk in the north of Australia.

I've got a shot of the Brown Goshawk that I'll post in a minute or so.

As for getting these shots it was just a matter of rapidly hand focusing while holding down the shutter. Of course, that meant a lot of shots were out of focus, and some were just sky and no bird.

MitchRay
MitchRay 12 years ago

I've never had a look at the Goshawk we have in the states, great shots once again

lori.tas
Spotted by
lori.tas

Tasmania, Australia

Spotted on Apr 22, 2011
Submitted on Apr 22, 2011

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