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Collared Sparrowhawk (female)

Accipiter cirrocephalus

Description:

I believe this is a female. These beautiful birds are, "a medium-sized, finely built raptor (bird of prey) with wide staring bright yellow eyes. The upperparts and side of the head are slate- grey, with a complete chestnut half-collar. The underparts are finely barred pale rufous on white and the rounded wings are rather short. The bill is black, with a pale yellow cere (fleshy bill base). The Collared Sparrowhawk has long fine yellow legs and very long toes, especially the middle toe. The tail is long and generally squared at the tip. The sexes are similar in appearance but males are smaller than females." (Birdlife Australia - http://birdlife.org.au/bird-profile/Coll... )

Habitat:

Having a feed in this tree which is about 50m back from the bank of a river, near Jignarrin (Barnett Gorge).

Notes:

This female Collared Sparrowhawk was in the process of building a nest. I was alerted due to seeing it flying towards the tree we were camping near, with a small amount of twigs in its talons. I saw the mate in a different tree and it was calling to her. She flew over and took the food provided then flew to this perch to eat it (pic 1 and the video is her eating). While the male does help at times, he provides her with food. Pic 2 is her finished eating and she had been cleaning her beak on the branch. This was the first time I had seen two Collared Sparrowhawks not only in the same vicinity (as they are usually a solitary bird) but, interacting with each other! Pretty special moment :) See spotting: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/205... of the nest.

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armadeus.4
Spotted by
armadeus.4

Western Australia, Australia

Spotted on Sep 26, 2016
Submitted on Oct 16, 2016

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