I saw this one round the edge of the Nepean river in the Penrith area circling to gain height. it was later joined by a second quite high in the air where they were interacting (maybe playing?) while flying. I would have gone with Spotted Harrier (because of the spots ang colour) but the lack of black wingtips is a little inconsistent with online descriptions.
i'm going with juvenile sparrowhawk or gos, leaning towards the former as the tail looks straight/notched in the first pic.
I'm also going with juvenile Sparrowhawk the wings look rounded Goshawks wings are straight with tips spread like fingers
The size was more consistent with Brown Goshawk. (a point I neglected to mention when posting) It was quite a large bird. closer to the size of the ravens than the currawongs that were in the vicinity. The wikipedia image of the Goshawk flying is a good match.
could be a female sparrowhawk
In your last pic i have zoomed in on the feet, but hard to be sure but it looks like one toe is longer than the others ( indicating Sparrowhawk ) If you can look at your original pics and check to see if i am correct with this?
Shorty......Canon gear
Canberra
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawshorty/
To be precise, I would say 1st year sparrowhawk, female. Sometimes the tail is not good for ID purposes... no bird has perfect plumage as in the field guides, due to moult, feather damage, etc.
Besides from the "round is brown and square is a sparrowhawk" thing, I find that the Brown Goshawk's rounded tail looks rather lobed at the end whereas your bird's tail tapers away nicely.
I say 1st year because of the scalloped plumage on the underside.
Female sparrowhawk is the best bet, I think.
Brandon (aka ihewman)
My first impression is juvenile (first year) Brown Goshawk. I'll run it past my friend Steve Debus.
I got an answer from Steve, who is an authority on Australian raptors. Funny, I cannot see the toes well enough though.
The hawk is a difficult one (apart from the
obvious choice of juvenile Brown Gos versus
juvenile Sparrowhawk) because one of the critical
pics is 'soft', and the tail is either closed
(side view) or widely fanned. It looks to me
like the middle toe extends well beyond the tip
of the inner toe. The tail could be square or
notched when closed, and the outer rectrices are
broad and not tapered. Coupled with the boldly
barred primaries and subtleties about the wing
shape (and wingtip shape, e.g. slight 'step' to
the primary fingers), I'd have to go with
Sparrowhawk. Absolute size is difficult without
a reference object, and female Sparrowhawk is the
same size as male Brown Goshawk.