• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Hello from Northumberland, help me identify HUGE bird (1 Viewer)

LSAMc

New member
Hi guys!

Hope you're all surviving lockdown !

Hoping you can help with identifying a bird that has bugged me and my family for about 4 years now.
We live in Northumberland, in a little town and our house backs onto some farmland and trees.
We saw a HUGE bird appear from the trees, about the size of a pelican. It was light grey in colour with a long yellow/orange beak with what looked like some sort of flexible pouch below the beak.
What fascinated us was how slow and "heavy" each beat of it's wings were. It looked incredibly slow and heavy.
As you can probably tell I know nothing about birds but hope someone can help ๐Ÿ™‚

We looked into local sightings at the time and found nothing, there is a small manor house nearby that hunt for game on their land but no record of any birds like that in the area.

Sadly no photos as it all happened so quick and was totally unexpected.
 
Hi there and a warm welcome to you from those of us on staff here at BirdForum :t:

Hopefully, someone from your side of the pond will ring in with some suggestions.

We're glad you found us and thanks for taking a moment to say hello. Please join in wherever you like ;)
 
Hi and welcome to the forum. Nice of you to join us.

As far as no pouch on a Gray Heron, If his head was tucked back in flight like our herons here in the U.S. do it might look like a pouch.
 
Hi LSAMc and welcome to BF. I agree with Grey Heron. They nest in colonies, in treetops, so there may be one near you !
 
The beak can appear very orange as they attain full breeding plumage. With the description and behaviour you've supplied I'm confident the bird was a Grey Heron.
 
Thank you everyone !
After looking at photos of a grey heron, there were quite a number of similarities :)
I'd still say from memory it was more the shape/size of a pelican rather than the slight silhouette of the heron.

Maybe there was a stray one from a local zoo or something!

Thanks so much to everyone for commenting and happy bird watching :D
 
Thank you everyone !
After looking at photos of a grey heron, there were quite a number of similarities :)
I'd still say from memory it was more the shape/size of a pelican rather than the slight silhouette of the heron.

Maybe there was a stray one from a local zoo or something!

Thanks so much to everyone for commenting and happy bird watching :D

Definately a Grey Heron: Size, shape, colour, slow wing beat. They are about the biggest thing that you will see flying in your part of the world and are not far off the size of a pelican.
 
If not a Grey Heron, it is possible it was a Great Egret. Can appear to be grey in silhouette, and the colour then fits the bill!
 
Hi guys!

Hope you're all surviving lockdown !

Hoping you can help with identifying a bird that has bugged me and my family for about 4 years now.
We live in Northumberland, in a little town and our house backs onto some farmland and trees.
We saw a HUGE bird appear from the trees, about the size of a pelican. It was light grey in colour with a long yellow/orange beak with what looked like some sort of flexible pouch below the beak.
What fascinated us was how slow and "heavy" each beat of it's wings were. It looked incredibly slow and heavy.
As you can probably tell I know nothing about birds but hope someone can help ๐Ÿ™‚

We looked into local sightings at the time and found nothing, there is a small manor house nearby that hunt for game on their land but no record of any birds like that in the area.

Sadly no photos as it all happened so quick
Hi guys!

Hope you're all surviving lockdown !

Hoping you can help with identifying a bird that has bugged me and my family for about 4 years now.
We live in Northumberland, in a little town and our house backs onto some farmland and trees.
We saw a HUGE bird appear from the trees, about the size of a pelican. It was light grey in colour with a long yellow/orange beak with what looked like some sort of flexible pouch below the beak.
What fascinated us was how slow and "heavy" each beat of it's wings were. It looked incredibly slow and heavy.
As you can probably tell I know nothing about birds but hope someone can help ๐Ÿ™‚

We looked into local sightings at the time and found nothing, there is a small manor house nearby that hunt for game on their land but no record of any birds like that in the area.

Sadly no photos as it all happened so quick and was totally unexpected.
Donโ€™t know about the pouchโ€ฆ but as large birds go, it might of been an egret, heron, great heron etc.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 2 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top