I know it is long shot, but I wondered if anyone may have any ideas as to the identity of the bird I saw whilst on the way to work this morning. It was 7:20am and so still pretty dark but here goes:
The bird was very large, almost Heron sized (although I know size can be deceptive), it was not a Heron though, its legs did not trail and it did not have a long neck.
It appeared black (this may have been due to the darkness and so could have been dark brown) but when it flew over me it appeared to have a whitish underside with the exception of the wings that still appeared black/very dark.
The wings were thick and had rounded ends, no noticeable fingers.
The bird was circling around over woodland but not soaring, it was flying with long, slow wing beats, it then flew over across more open farmland.
Its beak appeared longish (not to the extent of a wader but longer than say a crow) it was also possibly slightly turned over at the end (almost like a cormorant).
Thoughts went from Heron (when it was at a distance because of the size but none of the other features were there for this) to Buzzard (but no noticeable fingers and beak wrong) to Osprey (because of the white underside but again, no fingers, wrong time of year, wrong beak) to Cormorant (because of the beak but it was much larger than a cormorant) to finally Raven (because of the size but area is wrong, white underside doesn't fit and beak doesn't either - unless it had something in its beak).
It definitely wasn't a crow or rook - I know size can be deceptive but it flew right over my car and I see thousands of these coming in to roost every day.
Thanks in advance.
Jenny
The bird was very large, almost Heron sized (although I know size can be deceptive), it was not a Heron though, its legs did not trail and it did not have a long neck.
It appeared black (this may have been due to the darkness and so could have been dark brown) but when it flew over me it appeared to have a whitish underside with the exception of the wings that still appeared black/very dark.
The wings were thick and had rounded ends, no noticeable fingers.
The bird was circling around over woodland but not soaring, it was flying with long, slow wing beats, it then flew over across more open farmland.
Its beak appeared longish (not to the extent of a wader but longer than say a crow) it was also possibly slightly turned over at the end (almost like a cormorant).
Thoughts went from Heron (when it was at a distance because of the size but none of the other features were there for this) to Buzzard (but no noticeable fingers and beak wrong) to Osprey (because of the white underside but again, no fingers, wrong time of year, wrong beak) to Cormorant (because of the beak but it was much larger than a cormorant) to finally Raven (because of the size but area is wrong, white underside doesn't fit and beak doesn't either - unless it had something in its beak).
It definitely wasn't a crow or rook - I know size can be deceptive but it flew right over my car and I see thousands of these coming in to roost every day.
Thanks in advance.
Jenny
