What Bird Is This

Edg3

sorry for the blurry mostly small shot but this guy was VERY high up in the air and it took max zoom on my 350mm to even get this shot.

Its only a silhouette and we had 3 of them flying over the house today, and often they do appear and the smaller birds seem to go mad.

Judgement Day

A Buzzard?

windycity

It looks like a hawk.

Edg3

i think its a hawk to, but people in the area keep saying buzzard. their up very very high. i think the body looks like a hawk. but someone said they sound like buzzards.

Edg3

just out of curiosity i googled buzzards and the first to links i got were, buzzards on boards.ie about how plentiful they are around my area and then a picture of one, doing the same pose as what i took and their a match... think i'd have saved time and googled it in the first place

Feargal as Luimneach

Edg3 wrote: »

i think its a hawk to, but people in the area keep saying buzzard. their up very very high. i think the body looks like a hawk. but someone said they sound like buzzards.

Doesn't look like a sparrowhawk. Sparrohawks have long thin tails (longer than the width of the wing). Buzzards have fan shaped tails( shorter than width of tails).
Buzzards have wing tips which are well "fingered" as this bird is. Also sparrowhawks have wing tips which are more pointed.
I have never seen sparrowhawks soar in groups like that. Buzzards spend alot of their time doing so

Angus Og

Seems to be a buzzard.

Buzzard soaring:



Sparrowhawk soaring:

Edg3

well when you show it like that its pretty obvious. i'd love to see them up closer.

Judgement Day

Yep, hawks are not my speciality but I'm pretty sure the pic is a Buzzard. One of my first posts in the Nature & Birdwatching Forum was on the subject of Buzzards NOT being in Ireland:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055348431&highlight=buzzards Post #15

- I had been out of the birdwatching scene for three decades hence my mistake then and my reluctance to be definite now.

Angus Og

It's great to be seeing so many of these birds around. They're lovely to watch.

Edg3

Judgement Day wrote: »

Yep, hawks are not my speciality but I'm pretty sure the pic is a Buzzard. One of my first posts in the Nature & Birdwatching Forum was on the subject of Buzzards NOT being in Ireland:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055348431&highlight=buzzards

- I had been out of the birdwatching scene for three decades hence my mistake then and my reluctance to be definite now.

maybe when you said it there were none, then someone brought them in just to prove you wrong and they've been here ever since

yeah from looking at comparissons it does indeed look like a buzzard, the "fingered" wing times and the fan like tail are a dead give away.

jwshooter

its a buzzard a youngish one at that

Feargal as Luimneach

jwshooter wrote: »

its a buzzard a youngish one at that

Why?

Kess73

Just to add another vote for it being an adult buzzard.

Valmont

I saw my first two buzzards yesterday! I have been keeping an eye out for months in an area where I heard they were nesting and I finally saw them. The pointed wings and golden colour gives them away.

Alliandre

I saw what I thought was a hawk recently, but it might have been a buzzard. It was landing in the trees with a swallow in it's claws and it's tail was fanned out. Could a hawk fan out it's tail when landing, or would it remain in that narrower shape?

barryfitz

I would say Buzzard aswell now.

I had a similar question a while ago?
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055412551

Kess73

Alliandre wrote: »

I saw what I thought was a hawk recently, but it might have been a buzzard. It was landing in the trees with a swallow in it's claws and it's tail was fanned out. Could a hawk fan out it's tail when landing, or would it remain in that narrower shape?

How big was what you saw landing?

A buzzard is a medium sized raptor and as such will have a wingspan of between 3.5 to 5 feet.


If it was a swallow in the talons I would have my doubts about it being a buzzard.


If it caught a live swallow on the wing, then a peregrine falcon is a likely suspect. It is larger than a sparrowhawk, but smaller than a Buzzard, and has a wingspan of roughly between 2.5 feet to 4 feet on average.

The peregrine falcon has a wide tail and it does open quite wide in a fan like manner when landing.



Peregrine in the air





With tail spread.





Two other possibilities that I have witnessed catching a swallow in the air are the Merlin and surprisingly enough, the Kestrel.

A bird like a sparrowhawk, especially the smaller lighter male, would have a chance of getting the odd swallow, but they generally don't even try given how agile and quick the swallow is, plus given the way swallows will rect to a sparrowhawk once they spot it.

I get to watch the swallows near me mob the local male sparrowhawk at least once a day at the moment, and the display they put on whilst doing so is breathtaking. Literally coming right up to the tail feathers of the hawk as they harrass it out of an area, and if the hawk tries to land to get an ambush spot, the swallows will circle and dive around that spot, chirping loudly to draw attention to the hawk.

Alliandre

Hmmm, I don't think the wingspan was anywhere near 4 or 5 feet. It didn't seem that big to me. Would a Merlin or Kestrel be smaller? I really don't know anything about birds of prey. I had never seen one before this!

Kess73

Alliandre wrote: »

Hmmm, I don't think the wingspan was anywhere near 4 or 5 feet. It didn't seem that big to me. Would a Merlin or Kestrel be smaller? I really don't know anything about birds of prey. I had never seen one before this!

Here are what I think are the most likely suspects, although I could be very wrong and you saw another raptor in action.



Peregrine falcon. Wingspan of two and a half feet to four feet depending on sex.


.









Sparrowhawk. Wingspan of about two feet for a male, and roughly two and a half feet to slightly more for a female.


Male




Female















Kestrel. Small and light. Has a wingspan of two to two and a half feet.
















Merlin. Small and compact. Wingspan would be from about a foot and a half to two foot on average.









There are a few other birds that you may have seen, and you may indeed have seen a buzzard, although I think the size you are describing may discount the buzzard, but I think the four above are the most likely suspects, with the peregrine and the Kestrel being the best choices based on what was caught.





To put wingspan size into context with other birds, and to make it a bit easier to visual the sizes.

A magpie will have a wingspan of about a foot and a half to two feet on average.

Alliandre

Thanks for the info! I think it was a bit bigger than a magpie, but not by much. I wish I had gotten a better look at it.

Kess73

Alliandre wrote: »

Thanks for the info! I think it was a bit bigger than a magpie, but not by much. I wish I had gotten a better look at it.

Might have been a female sparrowhawk if a little bigger than a magpie. I don't suppose you got a look at the eye colour or a good look at the bird's colour/markings?


Actually another bird I just thought of is the Hen Harrier. Not a lot of them about when compared to some of the other raptors but they would be slightly smaller than the Pergerine but bigger than the female sparrowhawk.

Feargal as Luimneach

jwshooter wrote: »

its a buzzard a youngish one at that

Well, I'm interested to see why you think it's a young bird???

jwshooter

Feargal as Luimneach wrote: »

Well, I'm interested to see why you think it's a young bird???

primary and secondary flight feathers are very uniformed in length ,there is no loss of flight feathers through molting and little wear to be seen.

the tail feathers look to be narrow and sharply pointed ,no wear on them also.


as i said the bird looked youngish , not juvenile or adult .


from the picture is is hard to say any more as we cant see molt waves or color .

Kess73

jwshooter wrote: »

primary and secondary flight feathers are very uniformed in length ,there is no loss of flight feathers through molting and little wear to be seen.

the tail feathers look to be narrow and sharply pointed ,no wear on them also.


as i said the bird looked youngish , not juvenile or adult .


from the picture is is hard to say any more as we cant see molt waves or color .

You think that it is not a juvenile bird but also not an adult bird?

A three year old Buzzard can often have the same pointers you have described at this time of year.

The darker feathers that are helping to highlight the light breast band on the bird suggests that it is an adult bird as the breast band is normally not as distinct on a younger bird due to the feathers around it being slightly paler than that of an adult buzzard.

That's my tuppence worth anyway, the clarity of the picture does leave it somewhat open to a different, and maybe correct, interpretation though.

jwshooter

Kess73 wrote: »

You think that it is not a juvenile bird but also not an adult bird?

A three year old Buzzard can often have the same pointers you have described at this time of year.

well , that would make it youngish bird now would n it .

Kess73

jwshooter wrote: »

Kess73 wrote: »

You think that it is not a juvenile bird but also not an adult bird?

A three year old Buzzard can often have the same pointers you have described at this time of year.

well , that would make it youngish bird now would n it .

And it would make it an adult bird.

I was just asking as to what you thought it was if it was not a juvenile bird and not an adult bird in your opinion.

Feargal as Luimneach

jwshooter wrote: »

Kess73 wrote: »

You think that it is not a juvenile bird but also not an adult bird?

A three year old Buzzard can often have the same pointers you have described at this time of year.

well , that would make it youngish bird now would n it .

The best character to distinguish between adult/older buzzard and young birds is the tail pattern. Old Buzzards have a distinct broad and sharply defined band at edge of tail, young birds lack this. You cannot see with this photo, picture too dark. Colour (as you said jwshooter) is not a good indicator of age due to vast array of colour with buzzards ie dark, medium, light and everything inbetween.
In general younger birds are paler but you can get very pale adult morphs!
Younger birds are generally streaked on breast rather than the barring on adults, but there are always exceptions.

mymo

Can you tell me if a Kestrel would be around the size of a big crow?
Would they be around the south east?
There was a bird that looked a lot like the pic in this thread behind my house and the birds were going crazy, I ran for the camera but it flew away and I have never seen one before.

Feargal as Luimneach

mymo wrote: »

Can you tell me if a Kestrel would be around the size of a big crow?
Would they be around the south east?
There was a bird that looked a lot like the pic in this thread behind my house and the birds were going crazy, I ran for the camera but it flew away and I have never seen one before.

Kestrel around the size of Jackdaw( the smallest crow). They are found all over the country. A good clue to spot a kestrel is if you see a jackdaw sized bird hovering around 50m in the sky. They often frequent road side verges so keep your eyes in the sky.

mymo

Thanks, it looked big but I'm used to sparrows, probably what I saw then:), was about 50yards away and the sun behind it, but It did hover, then landed on a stump, definite it was pale pinky like the pic.
Delighted, first one I've seen, not big on birds just know the common garden ones.
Some gorgeous pic's by the way, lovely to see all the birds of prey, never knew there were so many in Ireland.