You call that a bird? This is a bird!

what a fine specimen! i love the birdlife in canberra.

Longreach by the sound of it…

And there I was thinking it was a Millennium Falcon

African or European ?

I had the same bird, if not a close relative of it, at my place near Wanniassa. It spent an hour trying to reach a Mynah I caught that morning in a RSPCA approved/Mynah Action Group designed trap. As with budgies, when it did finally get a grip on the Mynah, there were only little pieces left…

A beautiful bird, and it was fantastic to see in the suburbs.

Brown Goshawk or Collared Sparrow Hawk, depending on size and a couple of other things… twitchers on this site will know.

Either way, brilliant to see it in the neighbourhood. Hopefully it was preying on those nasty Mynah birds, saving the good people of the Canberra Indian Mynah Bird Action Group some work.

Yep, looks more like a Peregrine Falcon to me.

Goshawks aren’t as stocky and have a more wiry frame, like this one in my backyard in Chisholm:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2315/2231677077_deb5c0229c_b.jpg

Brown goshawk?
http://birdsinbackyards.net/species/Accipiter-fasciatus

When I lived in Gowrie, one of them was obsessed by the local caged budgies, so reached through the cage mesh and then ripped the budgies into pieces while they were still in their cage so it could extract the pieces and eat them.
Fascinating to watch over breakfast.

It’s a Brown Goshawk, accipiter fasciatus. Eats smaller birds, rodents, lizards, etc.

Unfortunately, mynahs are a bit too big for it to take down…