Slotted secondary feathers (1 Viewer)

[Ted Y.]

A few days ago, I observed a few soaring birds I identified as bald eagles. I compared the silhouette from sky with the silhouette from a googled guide.

However, the match was not perfect, because the real birds had slotted feathers not only at the tips of the wings, as shown in the guide, but also at the secondary feathers.

I searched a lot and I cannot find any bird silhouette with such slotted secondary feathers.

So, it is a bald eagle?

 

[Butty]

The effect is possibly due to feather-loss or moult - but it's impossible to confirm that, or to identify the bird, without photos.

 

[Ted Y.]

The effect is possibly due to feather-loss or moult

The slotted feathers where uniform distributed along both wings of each of the three birds.

 

[Armand]

something like this? looks battered to hell here but from a distance/mid distance the moult will typically look less harsh and more 'uniform', with the notches being what stands out

 

[Ted Y.]

It was at a distance, yes.

 

[Armand]

as mentioned earlier in the thread, it sounds like moult or damaged feather replacement, and the fact it was noted across multiple birds is highly suggestive of birds (possibly of similar age) in moult

with regard to the species involved, we can't comment on that without pictures but the notches on the secondaries do not rule out bald eagle in any way, so i wouldn't let their presence influence your own appraisal of what you saw one way or the other