Northern Goshawk imitators

[Jeff J Jones]

Over the past two weeks at my home in Teller County; on three different occasions; at or just after sunrise; a Northern Goshawk has been calling outside my home office, in dense woods, for 1 to 15 minutes.

 

The call is an absolute dead-ringer to every recording I have for a Northern Goshawk in every respect. Loudness, tempo, etc. Simply dead ringer. I can hear this thing inside my office, and it must be 10-40 yards away.

 

I am invariably tied up in a meeting or other work, but eventually get outside with camera and binos to look for it.

 

Every time I go outside, it ceases to call. Wondering around the acre of woods with an eye towards a sneaky large Accipter flying off silently, I have never found it. But, the Steller’s Jays that are always in my yard at this time of the morning (I put out peanuts in the shell for them) are always there.

 

So, the whole point of this email is, I know that Steller’s Jays do a weak imitation of red-tailed hawks; and I have witnessed this on countless occasions over the years. The Jays breed on my lot most years. But, I have never heard them sound anything like a Goshawk. And further, even though the Jays can be noisy and raucous, I don’t think any of them are capable of the volume of the Goshawk call. Am I wrong? Is it possible that a Steller’s Jay is making this call?

 

Jeff J Jones

(jjo...@jonestc.com)

Teller County - 8500' - Montane Woodlands

 

[Jim Nelson]

Jeff,

 

I checked the Birds of North America online article for Steller’s Jay, and here’s what it says about the Jay’s mimicry skills:

 

Mimicry. Good mimic; often heard imitating sounds of other animals in area, including those of fox squirrel (Sciurus niger; Brown 1964), Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus; WD), Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis; Kennedy and Stahlecker 1993), White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis; C. Ghalambor pers. comm.), chicken, and rooster (Gallus gallus), dog (Canis familiaris), cat (Felis domestica), and mechanical sounds such as water sprinklers, telephone, and squeaky door (WD, EG).

 

So, since Northern Goshawk is in its repertoire, it seems you’ll need to see the Goshawk to be able to rule out the Steller’s doing a good imitation.

 

Jim Nelson

Bethesda, Maryland

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