What is this bird? - Page 2 - Orchid Board

frank ferrara · #11 08-01-2006, 12:38 AM

i'm with orcdfrk, maybe a red tailed hawk. an osprey has a white head.

Mahon · #12 08-01-2006, 01:17 AM

Must agree, looks to be a Red Tailed Hawk, most likely a juvenille... Ospreys are primarily white, and have some browning to them, and are never found to far from bodies of salt water...

Ospreys are in fact a species of Eagle... their fishing is a commonly shared characteristic...

=)

-PM

justintimedc · #13 08-01-2006, 05:51 PM

Yup I will have to concur....I had not even looked at the pictures, I just was responding to the post that said it was an osprey. The same still applies however, that if there were four of them squawking and screeching, they are sure to be young ones recently fledged. Juvenile birds of prey are hard to identify, however. They do not have the characteristic markings of the adults. Osprey young do not have the white head for example, nor do bald eagle young. I am certainly not an expert at identifying juvenile birds of prey.

Piper · #14 08-25-2006, 09:45 AM

Hi all, sorry I haven't been around much lately!

I'm going to vote osprey, although they're so similar in appearance to red-tailed hawks in the identification markers you can see in these photos that it's hard to be absolutely sure.

General size is the same. Being closely related to buteos (buzzard hawks), their beaks are the same. The underneath striping on the tales is similar, and they both have white chests.

I'm thinking ospery, because the white throat travels quite far up, and it does quite a bit moreso on ospreys than red-tailed hawks. Also the mottling just above the wing is a bit more pronounced on ospreys. What really sold me was the crest on the back of the head, which you can just make out in the 2nd pic, and is more pronounced in the third pic.

I agree that these would be recently fledged birds. That would explain several in an area at once.

Nice pics!

Julie

cb977 · #15 08-25-2006, 10:19 AM

Hi Julie...long time, no see! Hope you're doing well

Thanks for your input. These birds were just amazing although I haven't seen them since that day. I love where I live...lots of wildlife and birds around all the time.
I keep my binoculars and camera readily available

wjbrown · #16 09-01-2007, 04:50 PM

I'd go with red-tailed hawk, too. Here's a site with a good photo:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...icial%26sa%3DN

The osprey has a sort of a mask, like the photo on this site:
Google Image Result for http://www.cvps.com/osprey/images/osprey-leftfront.gif

I could be wrong - I've never lived in an area with ospreys, only where there were red-tails.

flhiker · #17 09-01-2007, 05:33 PM

That is definitely a red tailed hawk. The white on a osprey goes all the way to the base of the tail including the legs. and the hawk has more of a hook bill

Dorothy · #18 09-01-2007, 05:42 PM

I would say red-tail also .. I see many ospreys around the north shore estuaries here on Long Island as well as red-tails - they are both beautiful birds of prey.
Great photos Sue!

gmdiaz · #19 09-01-2007, 07:07 PM

We have red-tailed hawks here in abundance. Their plumage is really variable, depending on age and time of year.

I would think that what you saw were red-tail hawks!

The young ones out learning how to hunt were clearly still not over the begging, whining stage.

It takes time to develope those hunting skills. LOL