ID for bird in Eastern Ontario, Canada (1 Viewer)

[birdbath]

I saw this bird flying above my home in Ottawa, Canada. It was big, had a white underside with black wing tips, and was hovering over the treetops looking for prey.

Can someone please help ID it?

Thanks!

 

[Andy Hurley]

A gull of some description? Light grey with black wing tips, but I can't see any white in the black, so probably a sub adult and the tail is either growing in after a moult or the angle hides it. Welcome to the forum, I hope you get your ID birdbath.

 

[birdbath]

A gull of some description? Light grey with black wing tips, but I can't see any white in the black, so probably a sub adult and the tail is either growing in after a moult or the angle hides it. Welcome to the forum, I hope you get your ID birdbath.

Thanks for replying. I don't think it's a gull - it was very big, much bigger than the gulls I see in my area. I think it's some type of hawk, and definitely a bird of prey. It eventually perched high up in a tree and a group of smaller birds tried to chase it away, likely protecting their nests.

Hopefully I'll get an ID on it!

 

[nartreb]

I think the wings are too thick for a gull. Behavior sounds like a buteo hawk, which makes a red-tailed hawk the leading candidate. Not enough detail in the photo to confirm, but we can rule out some of the other possibilities. It's not any kind of vulture or eagle; doesn't look like any owl to me; it's not an adult red-shouldered hawk, etc.

 

[rkj]

My best guess would be a very pale Red-tailed Hawk. The shape looks ok for that species and I maybe see dark bars on the leading edge of the wings which would confirm it, but I agree that we cannot see enough detail to be sure of the identification.

 

[birdbath]

I think the wings are too thick for a gull. Behavior sounds like a buteo hawk, which makes a red-tailed hawk the leading candidate. Not enough detail in the photo to confirm, but we can rule out some of the other possibilities. It's not any kind of vulture or eagle; doesn't look like any owl to me; it's not an adult red-shouldered hawk, etc.

A red-tailed hawk sounds promising. Could it be a Broad-winged Hawk? Or a Northern Harrier? The underside was a solid white - both the wings and the body, other than black on the wing tips and I think a darker spot on the tail. I've attached the original photos (previous ones were cropped and zoomed in) - here the bird appears smaller but clearer in detail.

I took a short video recording but it's too big to post on this forum, unfortunately, and when I compress it the quality is very poor.

 

[birdmeister]

The pattern of the bird underneath strongly suggests Red-tailed Hawk (dark belly band, dark patagial marks near "wrists", dark wingtips). Is there snow on the ground? Even typical "Eastern" Red-tailed Hawks can look amazingly pale underneath when over snow.

 

[D Halas]

A red-tailed hawk sounds promising. Could it be a Broad-winged Hawk? Or a Northern Harrier? The underside was a solid white - both the wings and the body, other than black on the wing tips and I think a darker spot on the tail. I've attached the original photos (previous ones were cropped and zoomed in) - here the bird appears smaller but clearer in detail.

I took a short video recording but it's too big to post on this forum, unfortunately, and when I compress it the quality is very poor.

A Broad-winged Hawk would be exceptionally early for Ottawa - there aren't any eBird records before the second week of April. The bodily proportions are wrong for Northern Harrier. It's most likely a Red-tailed Hawk.

 

[birdbath]

I managed to cut part of the video so the file is small enough to upload. Not sure if this will help at all but please have a look - you'll see the bird hovering above the pine trees. All of this insight is very helpful.

 

[Indobirder]

looks fine for Red-tailed to me

 

[birdbath]

The pattern of the bird underneath strongly suggests Red-tailed Hawk (dark belly band, dark patagial marks near "wrists", dark wingtips). Is there snow on the ground? Even typical "Eastern" Red-tailed Hawks can look amazingly pale underneath when over snow.

Yes there was snow on the ground. Everything seems to be pointing to Red-tailed Hawk. Thanks to everyone for helping ID this bird!

 

[Butty]

Red-tailed hawk. Their plumage is highly variable, and the diagnostic dark leading edge to inner part of underwing (as noted by RKJ and Meister) is distinct on both wings and in both photos, so photo-artefact can be safely discounted even in these low-quality (no offence) photos. Dark-looking part of tail may be due to moult from juvenile to adult.

 

[nartreb]

Good to have a solid reason to rule out broad-wing, thanks D Halas. Harrier came to my mind because of dark wing-tips, but behavior and wing position don't match harrier at all.
And yes, now that I've zoomed waaay in, that does look like a patagial bar in both photos. (I think the photos in the first post are crops of the larger photos in a later post.) There might be a belly band visible in one of the photos too. I don't quite agree that we can "safely" be sure the patagial bars aren't photo artifacts, but I do think they're likely to be real.
I'm upgrading from "maybe a red-tail" to "almost certainly a red-tail".