What kind of bird is this?

[Dave McClung]

Early one recent morning, a bird hovered over our house for quite a while. The light was still too dim to get a good photo.

I am fairly sure it is some kind of hawk, but it was larger than most. Do any of you recognize it.

[Bill Morrison]

Dave: I am an entomologist, not an ornithologist. Thought I would give it a shot anyway since I love taxonomy. I looked in Peterson's Field Guide to Hawks. I quickly saw there are lots of hawks and not too easy to tell apart at least by me. You are going to need a local naturalist who has seen these and knows the identification. Beautiful bird. Thanks for the picture.

BILL

[Dennis M. Scott]

One of my guys says it may be a black vulture. In this picture, the head doesn't exactly look like most hawks with which I'm familiar. Turkey vultures around here have a bald, bare head that usually looks pink or red, but black vultures' heads are feathered. I'm not familiar with the territory range of black vultures. How large a wingspan would you guess this bird had?

Sibley's indicates it is not a vulture. Likely it is a juvenile of some kind. It looks a lot like a juvenile black hawk, which generally are not found in Washington. The tail being separated is perhaps the most puzzling.

[Dave McClung]

One of my guys says it may be a black vulture. In this picture, the head doesn't exactly look like most hawks with which I'm familiar. Turkey vultures around here have a bald, bare head that usually looks pink or red, but black vultures' heads are feathered. I'm not familiar with the territory range of black vultures. How large a wingspan would you guess this bird had?

Sibley's indicates it is not a vulture. Likely it is a juvenile of some kind. It looks a lot like a juvenile black hawk, which generally are not found in Washington. The tail being separated is perhaps the most puzzling.

Thanks, Dennis. Because of the haze, it was hard to really tell how big it was. It appeared to be as large as the eagles that often hover in the same spot. Because of the high bank on the Puget Sound, when there is a wind out of the south there is a strong updraft in that location.

We have a lot of Cooper's Hawks in our area, but the bands in the tail feathers on this bird are too narrow.

I am confident it isn't a vulture. They have silver patterns under their wings. I am very familiar with them. And, we don't have many of them in Washington. I see lots of them in Arizona.

[Dave McClung]

Dave: I am an entomologist, not an ornithologist. Thought I would give it a shot anyway since I love taxonomy. I looked in Peterson's Field Guide to Hawks. I quickly saw there are lots of hawks and not too easy to tell apart at least by me. You are going to need a local naturalist who has seen these and knows the identification. Beautiful bird. Thanks for the picture.

BILL

Thanks, Bill. We get to see a lot of different kinds of birds here. The winter birds are now arriving from Canada. When I was a kid I learned that the sighting a robin was a sure sign of spring. It is just the opposite here. Robins, and their cousins the thrushes, winter here. Their arrival means that winter is on its way.

[Wayne Paul]

As I mentioned on Facebook, I think this is a immature Red Tail hawk. I forwarded a copy of the photo to Leon Powers (http://leonpowers.com/biography). Leon's response was....

Wayne,
I agree with you on the immature Red-tail call. The dark face, light chest and dark belly-band is fairly clear even in this photo. The tail certainly gives the impression of an immature bird.

[Dale Cozby]

http://www.whatbird.com/Expert/Expert.aspx

Maybe this will help.

I think maybe a red shouldered hawk...

[Dave McClung]

Early one recent morning, a bird hovered over our house for quite a while. The light was still too dim to get a good photo.

I am fairly sure it is some kind of hawk, but it was larger than most. Do any of you recognize it.

After studying Sibley's, I have come to the opinion that it is an Osprey. The coloring doesn't appear just right, but the light was poor. The narrow banding in the tail feathers and wings is more like an Osprey than any of the hawks.

[Tinker Boyd]

After studying Sibley's, I have come to the opinion that it is an Osprey.


Dave, from the picture it does not look like an ospery. Look at the wings. Ospery have very long narrow wings and they tend to hold them with a slight bend at the elbows.

I would go with immature Red-tailed hawk from the picture.

[Billie Goodson]

Osprey

1414

Red Tailed Hawk

1415

Osprey and Balk Eagle! -- and surfer -- taken by a friend

1416

[Wayne Paul]

I remember a day driving through Cascade Idaho seeing a Bald Eagle steal a fish form an osprey. They were flying directly in front of me about 75 feet above the highway when the eagle dived toward the osprey talons extended. The osprey dropped the fish and maneuvered to avoid the talons. The eagle streaked right past the osprey and grabbed the fish before it had time to fall more then 10 feet. (I sure wish I had a "dash cam!!")