ML75047571

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

What a shock! Flew south over Laguna Ave 0.4 mile west of Santa Teresa. Disappeared into hills in the vicinity of Coyote Valley OSP, where it may have been visible from the parking lot there at the end of Palm Ave. Immature based on tail pattern. I first observed the bird sometime around 11 AM - I had stopped on Laguna Avenue to scan for birds when I saw what I presumed to be a Turkey Vulture (large black bird with a dihedral) gliding over the road not too far behind me, maybe 300 feet or so. Exercising due diligence, when I looked at it with binoculars I was shocked to see it was certainly not a vulture, but a Buteo - with the black plumage and bright yellow cere, combined with the vulture-like structure and flight style, I realized it was a Zone-tail and immediately attempted to get some photo documentation before the bird got too far off. Once the bird was out of camera range I watched it with a scope until it flew behind a distant ridge. The bird strongly resembled a vulture (both near and far), always holding its wings in a dihedral and doing some "rocking" back and forth. The wings were long and narrow (again, vulture-like), very different from the structure of a Red-tail. The dorsal surface of the bird, as best as I could make out, was entirely dark - no noticeable bands or pale base on the uppertail, or any white on the primaries. I did not see the undertail pattern well in the field, but as you can see in the photos it is consistent with an immature Zone-tail - note the dark subterminal band. The head, breast, and belly also appeared entirely black, with no brownish tones. Once the bird got fairly distant, the bird's resemblance to Turkey Vulture in shape and flight style was uncanny, as expected for Zone-tail.

Technical information

Model

NIKON D7000

ISO

400

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/7.1

Shutter speed

1/1250 sec

Dimensions

716 pixels x 446 pixels

Original file size

189.15 KB