help to i.d. bird please (1 Viewer)

[jedku]

This is a fun thread. I agree with those who are suggested this bird is a gull/Skua of some kind. How many times do we see gulls carrying big fish in their, relatively small beaks? Very often here (FL, USA). I often see a gull laboring to gain altitude carrying a big fish away from other birds to a private spot on or near the ground to eat it. Gulls might easily fly within 4 ft of a person while so distracted.
A gull looks more like a falcon than a Cormorant.
Most of the time, Herons and cormorants eat their fish before taking flight. Gulls often fly with food in bill.
Color is notoriously unreliable as a field mark. Shape and behaviour are more reliable.
Marc

 

[Andy F Smith]

This is a fun thread. I agree with those who are suggested this bird is a gull/Skua of some kind. How many times do we see gulls carrying big fish in their, relatively small beaks? Very often here (FL, USA). I often see a gull laboring to gain altitude carrying a big fish away from other birds to a private spot on or near the ground to eat it. Gulls might easily fly within 4 ft of a person while so distracted.
A gull looks more like a falcon than a Cormorant.
Most of the time, Herons and cormorants eat their fish before taking flight. Gulls often fly with food in bill.
Color is notoriously unreliable as a field mark. Shape and behaviour are more reliable.
Marc

I know this thread is fairly cold now but I have just come across it and it intrigues me. The best answer I can come up with that hasn't been mentioned is a crow of some sort.

Reasons:
1) It is jet black
2) It is about the right size
3) The behaviour would fit
4) They do scavenge the shore in winter (ok spring now!)

Problems:
1) No white head! But I thought of 2 possibilities. Maybe it is an escape, even from a ship (crows are often kept as cage birds/pets), of a species that has a white head (there is a pied crow in Africa but that doesn't have the white on the head). Is there an Indian Crow that would fit the description? The other possibility would be a normal British crow with some albinism on the head.

What do other people think?