Accipiter gentilis albidus in all her grim glory, courtesy of Pluvialis.
These birds, who nest in tundra willow in eastern Siberia,where there are FAR too few trees for a Gos, are the largest subspecies of Accipiter gentilis. But they are not heavy and bulky like their nearest rivals in sjze, the Siberian forest Goshawks; they are long and slender, with rather pointed wing. As the main prey where they live is big Arctic hares and Willow grouse, it seems they are Nature;s attempt to evolve a Gyrfalcon out of a Gos.
Of course falconers love them—they are beautiful huge , rare (only becoming available in “eruption ” years, when a crash in a food species sends them south of their normal range) , and unlike “normal” Goshawks, calm and easy to tame. Chinese falconers called them “The North of the Waste White”,” knowing only that they came in certain years across the deserts of the Taklamakan.
Nowadays if you are well off you can fly one from a breeder. Be aware that they cost a LOT more than a Gyr
And they still come South, sometimes a long way. A few years ago one made it to to Rock Springs WY., where it was trapped by Danny McCarron, Sadly, it was mortally ill of “frounce” from a diet of urban bridge pigeons.
Danny sent her to the Smithsonian, but not before I got a feather, which now lives in Dementiev’s Birds of the Soviet Union.
I will try tyo get a “Classical” image later.
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