Bird ID request

[dunnet]

This may be a bit more serious, it was from our marine bird course.

[Old Fulica]

Originally Posted by Bea

We like and use the Merlin app, too. Saw this beauty for the first time (in over 20 years) at 'Campground Mi Casa' yesterday. Terrible quality, sorry. Turned out to be a female Northern Harrier Hawk. Stayed quite awhile, jumping all around looking for brunch. Yesterday's highlight - as we 'shelter in place'. -Bea

Hi Bea-I think that bird is a Coopers Hawk. Black cap, long rounded tail (which separates it from a very similar Sharp-shinned Hawk), broad stripes on tail. A female Harrier is brown (male is gray). Harriers tend to frequent open spaces and hunt from the air. Coopers will hunt in more confined spaces and run on the ground, if need be, as you describe.

[H&T]

Nice photo. I think it is a dead ringer for a mature Herring Gull. Bird-watching is a great pastime for RVers.

[Iowa Dave]

Originally Posted by Old Fulica

Hi Bea-I think that bird is a Coopers Hawk. Black cap, long rounded tail (which separates it from a very similar Sharp-shinned Hawk), broad stripes on tail. A female Harrier is brown (male is gray). Harriers tend to frequent open spaces and hunt from the air. Coopers will hunt in more confined spaces and run on the ground, if need be, as you describe.

Hi Len
The Nothern Harriers show up in good numbers in Eastern Iowa about mid October and hunt prairies and hay fields. A fond memory was seeing 4 harriers hunting a large hay field near Hartwick Iowa one fall. They were flying about 20 yards apart, four abreast into a steady south wind. Airspeed was very slow maybe 200 feet a minute. When they reached the end of
The field they flew back to the north end and moved over and started again. I watched them for 20 minutes easy. In that time two birds went down and got a mouse, vole or shrew., could not tell. The Cooper’s hawk blows up about I bird every two weeks off my feeders. Guess they have to eat too. Have a great day.
Iowa Dave

[Bea]

Originally Posted by Old Fulica

Hi Bea-I think that bird is a Coopers Hawk. Black cap, long rounded tail (which separates it from a very similar Sharp-shinned Hawk), broad stripes on tail. A female Harrier is brown (male is gray). Harriers tend to frequent open spaces and hunt from the air. Coopers will hunt in more confined spaces and run on the ground, if need be, as you describe.

Hi Len and Dian, Thank you for your ID! I just looked at our app and picked the closest match I could find, but I trust your ID way more. Thank you! When driving around I see hawks (? kind) perched on lamp posts above large open fields nearby, but never in our back yard. I hope it comes back...I keep looking...

BTW your blog is amazing! All your travels and pictures of animals are absolutly stunning. Since we can't go anywhere now, we will vicariousy travel through your blogs and enjoy those beautiful pictures and stories. Wow. Several of those places are on our bucket list, when we retire. Thank you so much! -Bea

[Nindy]

I agree with Western Gull. Herring has pale pink legs and a yellow eye. Glaucous-winged does not have black tips on the wings. Thank god it's an adult - I don't ID immature gulls!

This is an excellent page where you can flip through birds on the right side for comparison.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/...ecies-compare/

[Old Fulica]

Originally Posted by Bea

Hi Len and Dian, Thank you for your ID! I just looked at our app and picked the closest match I could find, but I trust your ID way more. Thank you! When driving around I see hawks (? kind) perched on lamp posts above large open fields nearby, but never in our back yard. I hope it comes back...I keep looking...

BTW your blog is amazing! All your travels and pictures of animals are absolutly stunning. Since we can't go anywhere now, we will vicariousy travel through your blogs and enjoy those beautiful pictures and stories. Wow. Several of those places are on our bucket list, when we retire. Thank you so much! -Bea

Thanks for the kind words Bea. If you have a bird feeder set up, there is a good chance it will return and wait for an easy opportunistic meal

[Old Fulica]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

Hi Len
The Nothern Harriers show up in good numbers in Eastern Iowa about mid October and hunt prairies and hay fields. A fond memory was seeing 4 harriers hunting a large hay field near Hartwick Iowa one fall. They were flying about 20 yards apart, four abreast into a steady south wind. Airspeed was very slow maybe 200 feet a minute. When they reached the end of
The field they flew back to the north end and moved over and started again. I watched them for 20 minutes easy. In that time two birds went down and got a mouse, vole or shrew., could not tell. The Cooper’s hawk blows up about I bird every two weeks off my feeders. Guess they have to eat too. Have a great day.
Iowa Dave

Hey Dave. Interesting that we have female Harriers here (west coast) all winter but the males mostly migrate south for the winter. Here is a male.

[UncleTim]

We get a lot of Cooper hawks at the feeders too. Here is a pic on one nailing a dove. There was a big cloud of feathers too.

I thought the hawk was going to have trouble flying away with the dove, but he took off like a shot. No problem at all. I don't know how often this happens but it might be more than I have noticed.

We live in the southern part of the Western Flyway. Lots of birds migrate thru on their way to Yellowstone.

Nice shot on the harrier BTW, even the fingers on the wings are clear.

[Vermilye]

Originally Posted by Old Fulica

Hey Dave. Interesting that we have female Harriers here (west coast) all winter but the males mostly migrate south for the winter. Here is a male.

Excellent BIF image!

[Old Fulica]

Originally Posted by Vermilye

Excellent BIF image!

[Old Fulica]

Originally Posted by UncleTim

We get a lot of Cooper hawks at the feeders too. Here is a pic on one nailing a dove. There was a big cloud of feathers too.

I thought the hawk was going to have trouble flying away with the dove, but he took off like a shot. No problem at all. I don't know how often this happens but it might be more than I have noticed.

We live in the southern part of the Western Flyway. Lots of birds migrate thru on their way to Yellowstone.

Nice shot on the harrier BTW, even the fingers on the wings are clear.

[Iowa Dave]

We have a fairly good sized lake about 15 miles away that holds cooling water for the nuclear power plant. The dam is oriented north south and has a good road on the top. The dry face of the dam is in shortgrass prairie. In the winter it is common to see harriers there. On their second or third pass down from the top, with the wind out of the north, they face north and virtually hover at about eye level and about 50 feet to the East of the road. It’s a real nice opportunity to photograph the harriers. I have pictures somewhere but not sure where.
Iowa Dave

[SharonK]

Banded birds can be reported to the Fish and Wildlife division, whether the bands are colored or not. I once photographed an egret with some sandhill cranes. F & W was excited to get the pictures even though the numbers weren't visible, the band colors and reported location were enough to furnish useful information.
Oh to know were the bird has been and what it has seen!

[SharonK]

Banded birds can be reported to the Fish and Wildlife division, whether the bands are colored or not. I once photographed an egret with some sandhill cranes. F & W was excited to get the pictures even though the numbers weren't visible, the band colors and reported location were enough to furnish useful information.
Oh to know were the bird has been and what it has seen!
Some banded bird info at https://www.fws.gov/birds/surveys-an...nded-birds.php

[Iowa Dave]

I occasionally attend the monthly meeting of the Audubon Society in my home town. About a year ago we had a speaker who has done extensive study of Cerulean Warblers and Red Shouldered Hawks. He’s been banding birds for many years and gave a fascinating lecture that painted a great picture of the range of some species. In Decorah Iowa he had trapped three red shouldered Hawks that had been previously banded in Siberia, Greenland and Mexico. As well as returning birds more than once. Birds have fascinated me since I was a kid.
Iowa Dave

[dunnet]

We recently took a marine bird course and one of the interesting discoveries was:

https://www.popularmechanics.com/sci...nths-straight/

A bird that stay aloft for 10 months.

[h2owmn]

Even though I am just a mile from what passes for downtown in a burg of 10,000, I live in a pretty wild area. A person who lives nearby who happens to have the same first initial and last name as I do is a widely known local birder who has written a book about the birds of this area. When there was a phone book i used to get occasional calls from folks looking for her. It's pretty amazing the birds she has seen here over her lifetime...80+ years.

Over the winter there were frequent (unprecedented) visits from a few ravens. Right now there's a bird I hear daily--likely a raptor of some sort with a high chirpy sound-that I haven't been able to ID from the Cornell site. A good mystery for an isolation situation. I am familiar with osprey and that's not quite it.

[sclifrickson]

Originally Posted by h2owmn

Right now there's a bird I hear daily--likely a raptor of some sort with a high chirpy sound-that I haven't been able to ID from the Cornell site. A good mystery for an isolation situation. I am familiar with osprey and that's not quite it.

Possibly a Bald Eagle? We have many in our area, and high chirpy is spot on for ours. Or the screech call.

[h2owmn]

Thanks for the suggestion. The bald eagle sound--at least by recordings--is significantly more chattery. After time with the website and peterson's, I am now pretty sure it's a red shouldered hawk. same two note call, repeated twice.

meanwhile, here's a wild picture of a cormorant that was posted on fb yesterday. i don't know whom to credit..