ML647583331

Beobachtungsdetails

Large dark hawk with conspicuously wide white bands cutting across the wings and tail. Much larger than a Nighhawk and bands much wider - shape of the hawk, approximately the size of an Osprey but not an Osprey. Flew like a hawk with some flap and some glide. I originally saw him a little further east on New Hope where there wasn't a place to park, but then he flew over again, and the white wing bands were distinct & obvious again. This illustration was drawn when he was still very fresh on my mind. Please forgive the exclusion of his legs & feet. My attention was more on his shape & markings. I didn't want to add details that were not clear in my memory. My overall view was of a dark hawk with bright wide white bamds intersecting his wings & tail. Merlin showed a Cuban Hawk under not in pur area species of hawks, which came closest for markings. But they are only in Cuba. However, there have been a lot of heavy rain storms in CA and it is conceivable for a Common Black Hawk to come close to this in markings. Really strangly though, he literally appeared to be a dark hawk whom someone had pasted the Common Nighthawks bands onto! And he definitely wasn't shaped like a Common Nighthawk, and he flew like a normal hawk, similar to Red Shoulder or Red Tail type of flight. A little flap and a little glide (NOT a vulture, slimmer and more elegant and hawk-like), and the wing bands were so wide and obvious I think that rules out a Zone Tail.. unless it was a Zone Tail with partially developed white feathers causing this striking apparition.