| The flag of the Azores is similar to the flag of Portugal used from 1830-1910, except that the Portuguese coat of arms has been removed from the center, where it was replaced by the Goshawk (in Portuguese: Açor) - the symbol of the Azores, and moved to upper left corner. The name of the archipelago comes from the Portuguese word açor, meaning goshawk, because it was supposed to be a common bird at the time of the discovery. However these birds never existed on the islands, they actually were a local subspecies of the buzzard (Buteo buteo), that was erroneously identified as goshawks by the first explorers. The eagle on the flag is intended to be the celebration of that historical mistake. The nine stars stand for the nine islands of the archipelago, while the Portuguese lesser arms are present in the top left corner of the flag.
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