Red Goshawk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Red Goshawk
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Falconiformes
Family: Accipitridae
Genus: Erythrotriorchis
Species: E. radiatus
Binomial name
Erythrotriorchis radiatus
(Latham, 1802)

The Red Goshawk (Erythrotriorchis radiatus) is probably the rarest Australian bird of prey. It is found mainly in the savanna woodlands of northern Australia, particularly near watercourses. It takes a broad range of live prey, mostly birds.

The Red Goshawk used to be regarded as a very large member of the goshawk subfamily, but it is now believed that the goshawk resemblance is convergent. Experts now group the Red Goshawk with the superficially dissimilar Black-breasted Buzzard and Square-tailed Kite as one of the Australasian old endemic raptors. It is believed that the ancestors of these birds, possibly together with a handful of species from South-east Asia and Africa, occupied Gondwana and over the millennia have diverged into their current forms.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Languages