ML113051191

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Media notes

trailing bird is the bird in question; leading bird was a Coopers Hawk. Note Kite-like shape, and the way it holds its wings.

Observation details

This bird was very likely a Mississippi Kite, but the probability that it could be something else is too high to report. The too-great breadth of the wings was the main problem, along with the lack of "hands" look to the wing raised the possibility the bird could actually have been a Broad-wing. I had good looks at this bird from about 200 feet at closest in poor lighting, so it was mostly a silhouette, and the bottom colors were all washed out but did appear to have a bit of variation from light to dark like a juvenile MIKI. The wings were very pointy and when the bird turned just right it did appear to have a white or light gray head, but that could possibly have been a reflection or artifact of the strong back-lighting. The bird was kiting; i.e. catching dragonflies on the wing, and eating them from its talons while flying. It was very kite-like behavior but I have also seen BWHA's doing this.

Technical information

Model

Canon PowerShot SX60 HS

ISO

100

Focal length

247 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/7.1

Shutter speed

1/1000 sec

Dimensions

640 pixels x 480 pixels

Original file size

53.86 KB