ML627655073

Observation details

Very rare. One of only a handful of records for Suffolk County, seemingly the first documented with photographs, and the result of some great teamwork in the field and afterwards. Moments after our CBC team landed on Spectacle Island, this juvenile hawk was seen by our entire party as it flew towards us. The initial vibes it gave several of us was of a buteo, but not right for Red-tailed Hawk, and therefore something interesting; though Ryan and I were at opposite ends of the dock, we both knew instinctively to start documenting the bird. As it flew directly above us it became clear that it was an accipiter and immediately after the bird had departed the island to the southwest both of us floated American Goshawk as an initial, hopeful impression. Our party also briefly discussed several of the key features we would return to in photo review later but we had limited time on the island to survey the thickets before our boat departed and had to keep going without settling on a firm ID. As I began to review my photos that evening, I was struck by a number of the field marks that we had seen and briefly discussed earlier. In particular I couldn’t get past the streaking present in our bird’s undertail coverts, something that I haven’t seen in any juvenile Cooper’s Hawk and really stuck out like a sore thumb; after a quick review of flight shots of both juvenile Cooper’s Hawks and American Goshawk in the Macaulay Library I was unable to find a single photograph of a Cooper’s Hawk showing this trait while every picture of a juvenile goshawk I looked at had streaking in the UTC. Birds of the World also mentioned this in both species accounts, but especially in its write up of Cooper’s Hawk: “In immatures, the bars on the rectrices are nearly aligned in Cooper's Hawk, but offset in American Goshawk, creating a zigzag effect; undertail coverts are streaked in immature American Goshawk, but are white and unstreaked in Cooper's Hawk.” At this point I started texting with Ryan and Lauren and over the next couple days our entire CBC team shared and reviewed our photos, consulted various guides and sources and solicited outside opinions. The features we believe support the ID include: - Broadness of wings - Wedge-shaped, almost raven-like tail with messy bars - Streaky undertail coverts - "Bulging" secondaries - Barrel-chested, hulking features What gave us pause initially was the seeming slenderness of the bird, especially in one particular photo, but as Ryan pointed out this was likely due to the fact the bird wasn’t soaring but instead aggressively flapping to get up and off the island. Thanks to Ian Davies, Gautem Apte, Tim Spahr, Marshall Iliff and others who provided feedback!