large blackish brown bird in slieve bloom

Joe1919

Hi all. I am not a bird watcher as such but enjoy walking the hills. I was out walking today in the (mixed) woods on the eastern side of slieve bloom (Capard) and briefly saw a largish bird with longish wings (much bigger than crow or jackdaw) rise. I have never seen a bird like this before. The bird was not a pheasant ( it seemed slightly larger) nor made any sound when rising.The bird was a sort of dirty looking brown. The bird was not long or thin like a crane nor fat like some type of duck. There is no lakes or ponds in the area except for the river barrow about half mile away, which is small and close to the source at this point.
Any ideas?

Tiercel Dave

I'll guess Buzzard.......

cameramonkey

Hen Harrier maybe.

Joe1919

Thanks for replies and suggestions. I googled 'buzzard or hen harrier' and got link below. From what I saw of the bird, the wing shape was more like that of the buzzard in the photo, but its plumage was a much darker brown.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/skydancer/b/skydancer/archive/2014/08/27/is-it-a-buzzard-or-is-it-a-hen-harrier.aspx

OpenYourEyes

Joe1919 wrote: »

Thanks for replies and suggestions. I googled 'buzzard or hen harrier' and got link below. From what I saw of the bird, the wing shape was more like that of the buzzard in the photo, but its plumage was a much darker brown.

Buzzards are infamous for being hugely variable in colour - some are very dark brown, some are a very pale brown, and there's every possible variation along that spectrum in between!