What kind of Bird of Prey? (1 Viewer)

S

SnowBird

Member

• Apr 20, 2004

• #1

Hello all! Our 10 year young son and us would love to know if you all can help identify this raptor for us...here, in a nutshell, is the short story: Sat. Apr. 3rd, I saw this beauty fly into the tree outside our balcony...we are in Pickering, Ontario, Canada - just east of Toronto, on the Oak Ridges Morraine in Southern Ontario; North shore of Lake Ontario. There are relatively vast forests in the morraine and area and a large raptor population...although I see them all the time riding thermals over the canopy, I do not know much about identifying them...we decided that we had a 'hawk' as a neighbor...in those general terms...here are the 5 pictures we took, at 8pm ET (GMT-5)...with a digital camera/flash...any feedback at all would be much appreciated!!
Tom, Cindy & Kyle!

 

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prairiemerlin

registered guy

• Apr 20, 2004

• #2

Your bird looks a Red-Tailed Hawk, due to its "bellyband" of streaks. If you could take any more pictures then it might be easier to narrow down the ID.

 

S

SnowBird

Member

• Apr 20, 2004

• #3

We will try for much better pics, I apoligize for the quality, best we could do at that moment...came back 2 weeks later on Apr. 17th and again the next night...was there at midnight and gone by time I was up at 6am, so I'm hoping that means there will be other opportunities! I looked into Red-Tails too, but I thought they left Canada/Alaska and stayed in southern US during winter...but that may be old-school text book...environment today has changed so much, that maybe they're 'back' earlier...we'll try for better pics!! Thank you!!

 

Larry Lade

Moderator

• Apr 20, 2004

• #4

From what I can see of the bird, it looks like a Red-tailed Hawk to me also.

 

Warbler

Warbler Watcher

• Apr 21, 2004

• #5

I was thinking the same thing, Red-tailed Hawk.

 

juniorbirdman

Member

• Apr 21, 2004

• #6

Definately a redtail

I'm definately going to go with a redtail. I see them everyday here in the states, and the bellyband totally gives it away. I'm positive that's what it is. You should see it again- I'd love to see some more pics, because the Red Tailed hawk is a beautiful bird!

Chris

 

robinm

Registered User

• Apr 21, 2004

• #7

Hi snowbird,

May I wish you a warm welcome to Birdforum on behalf of all the Admin, Staff and Moderators. I hope you enjoy your time with us - you seem to have settled in well.

Looks like you have got your bird id - that's one of the great things about birdforum.

 

S

SnowBird

Member

• Apr 21, 2004

• #8

Thank you all very much and red-tailed Hawk it is then! I will do all I can to get better quality pictures!! Cindy & I will visit regularly!!! Thank you Robin - Man of Kent!! You have a fantastic thing going here!