Goshawk

Goshawk

The Goshawk (scientific name: accipitergentilis) is a small and medium-sized Raptor. Its body length can reach 60 cm and its wingspan is about 1.3 M. The head, pillow and side of the head are dark brown, with white feather tips on the pillow, white and mixed black eyebrow lines; the back is brown black; the chest is densely covered with gray brown and white cross lines; the tail is gray brown, with four wide black cross spots, and the tail is square. When flying, the wings are broad, white under the wings, but densely covered with dark brown transverse bands. Females were significantly larger than males.

Carnivorous, mainly to forest rodents, rabbits, pheasants, hazelnut, doves and other small birds for food. They live in coniferous forest, mixed forest and broad-leaved forest at different altitudes, and also in sparse forest and small forest in Shanshi plain and hilly area. Keen vision, good at flying. During the day. He is alert and good at hiding. They usually move alone and have a sharp and loud voice. It is found in temperate and frigid forests throughout the northern hemisphere.

morphological character

The adult goshawk has dark brown forehead, head, pillow and head side, white base of neck feather, white eyebrow and black dry feather, black ear feather, grayish brown upper body to tail, dark brown transverse spots on the flight feathers, white patches on the base of the inner wing, the fourth of the primary flight feathers is the longest, with 4-5, 2-6, and 1-5, respectively. The tail is grayish brown with 3-5 dark brown transverse spots. There are dark brown fine lines and dark brown spots in the throat. The chest and flank are covered with black lines and legs. Perianal and infracaudal coverts are white with a few brown transverse spots. The iris is golden or yellow, the wax film is yellow green; the mouth is black, the base is stained with blue; the feet and toes are yellow; the claws are black; the front and rear edges of tarsometatarsal are shield scales.

The feather color of the female is similar to that of the male, but it is darker and larger. The upper body of the subadult is brown with dark spots. Eyebrow lines are not obvious; ear feathers are brown; abdomen is light yellowish brown with dark brown longitudinal spots. The young bird has brown upper body with yellowish brown feather margin, brown flight feathers with dark brown transverse spots and dirty white feather ends, brown head side, chin, throat and lower body with thick dark brown feather dry lines, and grayish brown tail feathers with 4-5 more significant dark brown transverse spots than adult birds.

Measurement of size: weight ♂ 500-800 g, ♀ 650-1100 g; body length ♂ 467-576 mm, ♀ 539-600 mm; zuifeng ♂ 19-22 mm, ♀ 23-25 mm; winged ♂ 292-338 mm, ♀ 295-377 mm; tail ♂ 215-265 mm, ♀ 244-285 mm; tarsometatarsal ♂ 61-74 mm, ♀ 64-80 mm. (Note: ♂ Male; ♀ Female)

Note: website of goshawk Atlas

Habitat

Goshawk inhabits in sparse forest, forest edge and shrub zone. It is also common in secondary forests. They live in coniferous forest, mixed forest and broad-leaved forest at different altitudes, and also in sparse forest and small forest in Shanshi plain and hilly area.

Life habit

Goshawks are predatory birds of prey in the forest. Keen vision, good at flying. During the day. He is alert and good at hiding. They usually move alone and have a sharp and loud voice. When hovering in the air, the two wings straighten horizontally, or lift up slightly, occasionally accompanied by the agitation of the two wings. However, except during the migration, they seldom hover in the air. They often hide in the forest branches to peep at their prey. They fly fast and flexibly. They can use the short round wings and long tail feathers to adjust their speed and change their direction. They can walk up or down in the forest, or high or low among the trees, and can also fly At the same time, they also fly over the open area of the forest edge or glide along a straight line to peep at the activities of animals on the ground. Once they find the prey of rodents, rabbits, pheasants, hazelnut chickens, doves and other small and medium-sized birds in the forest, they quickly dive, chase in a straight line and catch the prey with sharp claws. Although its weight is about one fifth lighter than that of other medium-sized raptors, its speed is more than three times faster. When it reaches out its claw to strike its prey, its speed is 22.5 meters per second. Therefore, the characteristics of predation are fierce, accurate, ruthless, fast, and it has great lethality. All animals within their ability should pounce on it, pierce its chest with the claw on one foot, and then use the claw on the other foot Open the abdomen, eat the fresh heart, liver, lung and other visceral parts, and then bring the bloody corpse back to the tree to tear and peck.

There are mainly summer and winter migratory birds in China, and most of them are passers-by birds in the central and eastern regions. The migration time is from March to April in spring and from October to November in autumn.

Mode of reproduction

nesting

Cangying moved to Northeast China in late April. The range of activities is wide, but the activities are hidden. If you see flying in pairs in the sky, chasing each other, and constantly chirping, it means that the pairing has been completed. Choose to nest on the higher tree in the secluded forest. Old nests are often used, and the nest materials are fresh birch, Tilia amurensis and Ulmus pumila, branches and leaves and a small amount of feathers. After laying eggs, they still build nests. After hatching, the speed of nest repair increased with the growth of nestlings.

lay eggs

The earliest oviposition occurred at the end of April, some in the middle of May. One egg every other day, 3-4 eggs in the nest. The eggs are oval, pointed and blunt, with bright black and light duck egg cyan. Hatching is done by females. During hatching, with the increase of the number of eggs, the time for females to leave the nest decreased gradually. After laying 3-4 eggs, the number of times of leaving nest was only once a day. The female lies in the nest all day long, does not sing and seldom raises her head. In addition to predation, male birds usually live nearby. When crows and magpies pass by, they look up and occasionally hover over the nest without singing.

hatch

The daily cycle was observed in the early stage (8th day), middle stage (18th day) and late stage (28th day). Full lying occurs in the morning, evening and rainy weather when it is cold. When the temperature is high, the hatching time is when the head is up and half lying. When the temperature is high, the female opens her mouth and fannes her wings from time to time. During the incubation period, the body position was relatively stable and changed little. The incubation period is 30-33 days.

Brooding

The female and the male raised their nestlings together, mainly the female. The male is mainly alert. The number of branch delivery increased in the middle stage. In the later stage, food was given priority to. In the later stage, the nest was flat and disk-shaped, with an outer diameter of 58 × 96 cm, an inner diameter of 50 × 69 cm and a height of 38 cm. The brooding period is 35-37 days. It can be seen that warm chicks are the main preys in the early stage, 12 times a day and 2 times a day. In the late stage, the nestling was not warm, and most of them lived around the nest for 11 hours. In the brooding period, the warm nestling of female decreased with the growth of chicks, and the time of leaving nest increased with the growth of chicks. When the warm chicks stop, the nest building is over. In the early stage of feeding, small pieces and strips were the main feeding methods, and then the small pieces were gradually fed by themselves, and the chicks were fed by themselves.

The fledgling just out of shell is covered with white feather. Eyes open, iris grayish brown. The mouth is lead gray, the egg teeth are long rhombic, white, and the tarsometatarsal and claws are gray white. At the age of 7.5 days, they could sing loudly and stand on the tarsometatarsal part. The back and head are brown gray and the base is white. The hair follicles in the feather area were obvious. The claws are black. At the age of 13.5 days, they can sing continuously and stand. The back feather sheaths are set with tassels, and the feathers are brown. The mouth is black and the wax film is light yellow. At the age of 19.5 days, they could stand and walk freely. The primary flight feathers, shoulders, back sides, back neck, loin and flanks are all with tassels, white and brown black. The little wing feather also puts the tassel. The margin of the feather is light brown and the petals are black. The eyes are black with needle like hairs. At the age of 27.5 days, the chicks often move in the nest, flapping their wings and raising their heads, and often walk to the edge of the nest. The food can be torn by oneself. The egg teeth disappeared. The whole body is mainly brown, with black feather pattern, brown tip and black back feather. The abdomen is half downy and half plumage. Under the tail covert light brown, tail feather black, tip Zhu brown, ventral white. Tarsometatarsal pale yellow green. At the age of 34.5 days, they occasionally stand on the side of the nest. It can fly, rise and fall freely, and perch unsteadily. The distance from the nest is 80-100 meters. It's constantly chirping. The top of the head is golden yellow, and the downy feathers have retreated completely. There are dark brown feather dry lines, and the whole body is covered with plumage. The back is dark brown, the abdomen is light brown, with longitudinal spots, the feather is dry black, and the tip is light brown hook. Under the tail covert light brown, the tip is lighter, the abdomen is almost pure white. 5 days old. Goshawk chicks have the habit of vomiting food group. The size of the food ball is 0.6 × 2.2 cm.

The body weight of goshawk chicks reached a peak at 18.5 days old, reaching 433 g, 15.75 times of that at birth. The body weight decreased to the lowest point at the age of 24.5 days, and then gradually increased to 460 g at the time of flight, which was 16.72 times of that at birth, with an average daily growth of about 12.54 G. The body length increased by 3.95 times and 7.2 mm per day. The growth of wing length was slow before 18.5 days old, and fast after 18.5 days old. It reached the peak at 30.5 days old, and then slowed down. The tarsometatarsal part grew rapidly before 15.5 days of age, and then slowly. After 9.5 days of age, the growth of the mouth slowed down significantly. 5 days old. The body weight and length of tassels grow rapidly before releasing. Its hind wing, wing tassel and tail tassel grow rapidly. The mouth length and tarsometatarsal length of goshawk should grow in the early and middle stages. The wing length and tail length were in the middle and late growth stages. At 18.5 days of age, mouth length was the largest, followed by tarsometatarsal length, body length, tail length and body weight, and wing length was the smallest. The food of nestlings was mainly rodents, accounting for 47%, birds 38%, and other snakes 15%.

Distribution range

world

country of origin:

Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, gibraltarian, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran The Republic of Finland, Iraq, Ireland, Israel

Chinese PinYin : Cang Ying