My interest in the Birds of Europe was inspired by a two week trip my husband and I made to England and Finland. In the days ahead I’ll tell you more. Meanwhile, here’s one of my favorite sightings in Finland illustrated with my very bad photos.
Last Thursday afternoon I took a walk along the paved pedestrian trail in Helsinki’s Töölönlahti Park. I was enjoying close looks at arctic terns, great crested grebes, Eurasian coots, and barnacle geese(*) when a huge flock of mew and black-headed gulls swirled above me in alarm.
The gulls were the pursuing a bird of prey that quickly landed next to the sidewalk and stood on its prey the way our red-tailed hawks do in public. The hawk was holding a wood pigeon and panting as it watched people, dogs and bicycles go by. It was an adult male northern goshawk!
In North America, goshawks avoid cities and people so I was stunned and pleased to see one so close. However the bird’s appearance confused me a bit. In North America, juvenile goshawks have yellow eyes while adults have red eyes. In Europe this bird’s bright yellow-orange eyes indicate he’s an adult.
His size fooled me, too. He’s so large that I thought he was female. The next day I learned from my bird guide, Jari Laitasalo, that male and female adult goshawks have different head plumage in Finland. Females have very pale heads so this bird’s dark head indicates he’s male.
Goshawks eat birds(**) but their favorite prey in northern Europe is the wood pigeon. Jari explained that the abundance of prey in Helsinki’s city parks has drawn goshawks and eagle owls to nest in the city center.
Not wanting to disturb this awesome bird I stood far back to take these photos with my cellphone and binoculars. After 15 minutes he was still on the prey so I gave up and walked back to the hotel. Goshawks have more stamina that I do.
(photos by Kate St. John)
* Barnacle geese were introduced in Finland and are now urban pests in Helsinki.
** The Finnish word for goshawk is kanahaukka: kana=chicken, haukka=hawk.
absolutely awesome photos!
Goshawks and other accipiters don’t usually develop the blood-red eye color until age 5. They go from yellow to orange to red.
https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/condor/v076n02/p0219-p0222.pdf
Rob, as the article you site points out, the eye color changes from yellow to orange to red in North American accipters. However, the European subspecies of the northern goshawk does not do follow the North American rule. Full adults in Finland have yellow-orange eyes.
My Finnish grandmother used to play with us kids saying “haukaa lenta, haukaa lenta!”
Now I know what she was picturing as she swooped her hands above our heads…..”hawk is flying!”
Stunning looking bird. Looking forward to more Finland/England posts.
I was walking down by Hietaniemi this Independence Day enjoying some sun and the icy foreshore when a goshawk flew right over my shoulder and across the water towards a little island called Taivaluotto.
It remained there calling for some time and then flew back low towards where I was walking and settled in a tree. I switched on my phone video and it then did some circuits around the bay with the setting sun behind. A beautiful bird it was. Shame I hit the pause button somehow and recorded nothing. Next time….