Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: AquaShrimp on January 07, 2008, 12:06:20 AM
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Recently, a large bird of prey has taken up residence near my house. My neighbors have a flock of guineas, which this bird has been eating. This bird of prey is pretty large, has a dark brown body with a cream colored chest. I haven't been able to get a good picture of it, I'd need a telephoto lens for my camera. I have seen it up close with my binoculars, but there weren't and spectacular markings on it. Just the brown body with cream colored chest. Any idea what it might be?
I'm about 20 miles south of Louisville KY.
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It's birdzilla. Call the history channel because Monster Quest wasn't able to find it.
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Chicken hawk maybe. Without a pic hard to tell.
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Does it look like this? peregrine-falcon
(http://www.mccullagh.org/db9/d30-19/peregrine-falcon-3.jpg)
Going on discription and that it's eating birds. Which is what this bird does. Only thing is, it's mainly a northern bird i.e. Canada / Alaska, but known to come futher south during winter.
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(http://images.wikia.com/memoryalpha/en/images/d/d2/KlingonBirdofPrey.jpg)?
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Here are my suggestions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Harrier
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Hawk
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I still say Chicken Hawk.
(http://johnrozum.com/images/heneryhawk.jpg)
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Until I looked into it, I was unaware that more than one type of hawk was referred to as 'çhickenhawk'. interesting. Maybe he's a ...
Red-Tailed Hawk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_tailed_hawk)
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I'd say a red tailed as well from the description.
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Heres some (bad quality) pictures of the bird.
http://k4emq.home.insightbb.com/Birdtree.JPG
http://k4emq.home.insightbb.com/birdtree2.JPG
http://k4emq.home.insightbb.com/birdflying.JPG
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(http://www.badmovies.org/movies/rodan/rodan7.jpg)
maybe??
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It looks pretty beefy... squared, soaring wings. The way he's perched in the first pic makes me think a vulture of some sort - but they don't kill their meals.
How close did you get? See any white on the underside of the wings?
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The entire underside of the bird is a cream color, including the bottoms of the wings. I could see it pretty good with binoculars.
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The best way to describe any Raptor is to start with it's tail. That is the most distinctive part of many of them, and the way most are identified.
Also, what part of the country are you in? That helps...
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Didn't see its tail very well. I'm in Kentucky USA.
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Shoot it, send it to the WWF (http://www.worldwildlife.org/) and ask them what you have just killed.
Post their reply here :)
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If it aint protected, blast it out of the sky, or shoot it anyway for killing the guineas
Post the pictures on the PETA board and send us the link
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Red tailed hawk, or a close relative. In the last few years, some very large examples have been seen around here. By the way, all hawks and such are protected, and if you kill one, you can be prosecuted under multiple state and federal statutes. IF you contact the state wildlife agency, they will either trap or kill the bird for you. Or the MIGHT give you permission to do so.
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looks like a red tailed hawk!:aok
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lol Slash..RODAN!!
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Oh I certainly don't want to kill it. I think its fascinating watching predators eat other animals. In fact, I have my back 4 acres set up almost like a nature preserve. My pond attracts all manner of animals: ducks, blue herons, frogs, snapping turtles, rabbits, songbirds, and there is even a resident skunk.
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I'd have to agree with Oct... it doesn't seem to sit upright enough to be a raptor, it sits like a vulture does. Also, it seems to have a little bit of length in its neck, not quite the short stocky hawk's neck.
See if you can get closer. :)
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The head shape (square back head) makes it look like a Caracara.
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Maybe a Broadwing or Coppers hawk.
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May I suggest that you try this in order to get better pics of the bird....
Rent a Chicken costume, a fresh roll of film, preferably high speed stuff and Band~Aids.... You may only get a one time chance to snap off a few shots of his approach.
Good Luck and post what pics you can.
:aok
Mac
My bet is also Redtail Hawk.
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Check out THIS (http://www.birdchick.com/2007/03/red-shoulderedred-tailed-hawk-hybrid.html) blog for some pics and commentary on a similar situation.
p.s. With all the pics involving trees, it could be JollyFE...he's a BoP and always seems to run into trees :D
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I would consider it might be an Eagle, possibly a young Bald eagle...
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Interesting Airscrew. Thats one of the reasons I started this thread. My father claims its an eagle, possibly a Golden Eage. But I think it is a hawk. While I was in Texas on business, he said the bird had dark plumage all over, but had only recently shed some of its dark plumage and its chest and wings began to lighten up.
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It looks like a red tailed hawk to me. We have a lot of these in Upstate New York. You can see them near the New York State Thruway looking for cheap eats. They get surprisingly large if well fed. Wing span is about 4 to 6 feet.
Spazz
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Looks like an Red Tail.
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We have a Sparrow Hawk here at the house, watched it kill and eat a Pidgeon last week :) I have lots of pictures of it and it looks nothing like that.
We have several Red Tail Hawks up at our cabin in the mountains where I hunt. I've wathed them for years both at rest and in flight. Saw 4 of them yeaterday, they look nothing like those pictures.
We also have a nesting pair of Bald Eagles up there that have a very similar body shape......but not the same coloring.
I spent 4 years working the Tennessee River / Kentucky River / Cumberland Lake regions of Tennessee and Kentucky and saw many many Golden Eagles (the locals called them "American Eagles")....and that is sure what it looks like to me!
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Being a biologist, (although I work in the marine environment) I've been trying to work an identification with those pictures. You need to get closer and get better pics if possible. The white wing bars in the one pic are very interesting.... and not indicative of species in your area.
Just from the look of it.. family Accipitridae, order Falconiforme.
Look up Swainson's Hawk (Buteo swainsoni), and see if it matches what you see.
I would really like you to get a pic of the neck area if possible. You may have a species that isn't local to your area... and actually should be wintering in Northern Mexico. I'd like to confirm it with better pics... but I'd need to see the head. Even with photoshop... just can't get res.
If it is what my first guess is...and I'm definately not a birder... I'd recommend you report it and get an ornithologist to document it... it may be a very significant sighting.
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I've had my digital camera charged and ready to go for the last few days. But I haven't seen the bird. I'll see if I can spot him today.
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Is it an osprey?
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It flew directly overhead one day, and its entire underside was a light coffee color. I noticed yesterday that my neighbor's guinea flock is down to two birds now. So I believe its eaten three of them since November.
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Originally posted by Meatwad
If it aint protected, blast it out of the sky, or shoot it anyway for killing the guineas
Post the pictures on the PETA board and send us the link
Aren't all birds of prey protected in the U.S.?
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Originally posted by Sandman
Aren't all birds of prey protected in the U.S.?
Yes, they are.
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The silhouette of your in-flight picture looks so much like a Turkey Vulture, along with the description of the "cream" coloring of the feathers under the wings.
The length of the wings in proportion to the body does not look like a typical raptor.
(http://www.birdperch.com/images/Turkey_Vulture-05.jpg)
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Originally posted by lasersailor184
Is it an osprey?
The Osprey's food is fish.
AquaShrimp, what would you estimate the wingspan as? For the Red-tailed Hawk it is ~4ft. For a Cooper's Hawk it is 2-3ft.
from
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/results.html?cx=012043341359960757453%3Attajgxxd_rc&cof=FORID%3A11&q=hawks&sa=Search
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Originally posted by MiloMorai
The Osprey's food is fish.
AquaShrimp, what would you estimate the wingspan as? For the Red-tailed Hawk it is ~4ft. For a Cooper's Hawk it is 2-3ft.
from
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/results.html?cx=012043341359960757453%3Attajgxxd_rc&cof=FORID%3A11&q=hawks&sa=Search
Did you look at this photo that he took ?
http://k4emq.home.insightbb.com/birdflying.JPG
The size of the wingspan in the picture in relationship to the distance from which he took the photo, I would think that the wingspan far exceeds 4ft.
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The flying picture looked like a Turkey Vulture to me also, but he said it killed fresh meat and vultures don't do that :shrug: Thats why I was thinking Eagle maybe....something that would make a fresh kill, but would also have wingtip feathers that stuck out like that (and that long a wing spread to boot).
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Originally posted by SlapShot
The silhouette of your in-flight picture looks so much like a Turkey Vulture, along with the description of the "cream" coloring of the feathers under the wings.
The length of the wings in proportion to the body does not look like a typical raptor.
(http://www.birdperch.com/images/Turkey_Vulture-05.jpg)
While we do have alot of turkey vultures around here, this bird was not one. When it was perched on top of a high-tension power pole one day, I saw it through a pair of binoculars. In the full sunlight, the bird's chest was almost white.
From the coloration, I'm going to guess that its probably just a large red-tailed hawk.
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Aquashrimp, I think the key feature you should be looking at is the little crest of feathers at the back of the head.
That's why I suggested the Caracara and Osprey.