Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!wuarchive!uunet!mcsun!ukc!newcastle.ac.uk!turing!q1ygq From: J.M.Spencer@newcastle.ac.uk (Jonathan Spencer) Newsgroups: rec.birds Subject: Re: Peregrine over Route 1 in New Brunswick, NJ??? Message-ID: <1990Dec7.092805.6604@newcastle.ac.uk> Date: 7 Dec 90 09:28:05 GMT References: <10509@helios.TAMU.EDU> <1990Dec3.164235.14061@newcastle.ac.uk> <532@research.cc.flinders.oz> Sender: news@newcastle.ac.uk Distribution: rec.birds,usa Organization: Computing Laboratory, U of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK NE1 7RU. Lines: 29 In article <532@research.cc.flinders.oz> psjmt@research.cc.flinders.oz (James Tizard) writes: >In article <1990Dec3.164235.14061@newcastle.ac.uk> J.M.Spencer@newcastle.ac.uk (Jonathan Spencer) writes: >> >>>Finally, there are lots of things bigger than a peregrine, although >>>I can't (without a bird guide) think of what is bigger _and_ more >>>like an accipiter or falcon than a hawk as far as its flight >>>profile goes. >> >>"...more like an accipiter of falcon tha a hawk..."? What *is* an >>Accipiter if it's not a hawk? >> >>Jonathan M Spencer > >In England, and here in Australia too, we don't have 'hawks' as such. >'Hawk' is a lay term for smallish raptors, of which accipiters >(goshawks & sparrowhawks) are one genus (family?). In the US however, things >are different (suprise!). I haven't got my US field guide with me, but >I do recall that there is a whole family of raptors correctly referred >to as 'hawks'. One species I remeber seeing in the south was the Red Hawk >(???) - a common roadside hawk of about european buzzard size. I'm sorry, but you've rather missed the point. While the layman might refer to any raptor as a hawk, and falconers might define a hawk as "any diurnal bird of prey used for falconry", the more strict definitions classify *just* Accipiters to be the true hawks, Falco are the falcons, and Buteo the buzzards. Hence, the American common name for the redtailed hawk is incorrect since the redtail is _Buteo jamaicensis_ - it is a buzzard, not a hawk. Thus my question "what is an Accipiter if it's not a hawk" is correct.