id this bird

[Martha]

I hope you get a good shot of the supposed raptor. Another possible small hawk in south Florida is the black morph of the short tailed hawk. Short-tailed Hawk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Of course, it could be a juvenile of something and I am not good at hawks.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

this is definitely not a hawk. is some kind of owl. the squirrels are too confident and the cardinals haven't scattered. the hawk came by a month or two ago and the cardinals leave when he visits.

this is a night hunter. a day sleeper. a night owl. how do i know? because it takes one to know one. the 1st pic is head-on. the 3rd pic is profile. in that 3rd pic odo has turned his head as if he's not paying attention to me with his eyes but what he has pointed in my direction is his "ear" (that pointy thing sticking up above his head) because as soon as i got within picture range he flew off, thus the bad shot. that curvy pointy thing is not a beak; it is the tuft of sound-directing feathers above the ear, at the top left side of his face. odo's face in that picture is aimed away from the camera, looking down the electric wires on which he is perched.

cool tool harley. but instead of spending money i think i'd rather just enjoy the mystery.

[TromboneAl]

It just doesn't look like an owl to me.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

stop concentrating on the underarms t-al and try looking the owl in the face.

[Martha]

If it looks like an owl, then we need better pictures because the pictures don't look owly.

How about nighthawks? Fits the slimmer wings, the evening presence, and the failure to scare off other birds.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

checking pics on wiki. doesn't have white under neck. nor onthe wings.wing structure is similar however. anyway, i know. better picture. i know. i'm working on it.

[Urchina]

I took a peek at my Sibley guide and I'd vote with Martha on this one -- this guy looks like a Nighthawk. The throat band he has seems to match that of the Lesser Nighthawk, which has a spotty range in parts of southern Florida. He could also be a common nighthawk as well -- which has a wide range throughout the US.

Pretty guy!

[TromboneAl]

Juvenile nighthawk





http://www.bixby.org/parkside/multim...0Nighthawk.JPG

[harley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl Juvenile nighthawk http://www.bixby.org/parkside/multim...0Nighthawk.JPG

Looks right to me. Good on ya, Martha, Urchina, and T-Al.

[kyounge1956]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazygood4nothinbum checking pics on wiki. doesn't have white under neck. nor onthe wings.wing structure is similar however. anyway, i know. better picture. i know. i'm working on it.

I have to agree with the people who say it looks like a nighthawk. In the first picture the bird is looking straight at the camera, right? If it's an owl, where are the "ears" in that picture? I don't see any sign of them. As to no white on the neck, maybe he is a she. Wikipedia says the throat band is light brown in females of either species mentioned above. I would call it rust colored in either photo, but that may just be the dim light.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

i got a very good look at his outstretched wings and he did not have these stripes found on the lesser nighthawk.
view from above


view from below


also odo didn't have that type of mottling. it was more a subtle brindle of brown tan & black.

not all owls have the pronounced "ears" as does the great horned owl


for instance, one of my favorites is the barn owl. look ma, no ears:


look how pretty


the hawk is more streamlined. look how the tail feathers fold together at rest on this common hawk


now compare that to odo whose feathers fan out.

anyway, i tried to find him today but he was not in sight. i'm afraid i might have scared him from the garden. or he's already caught what prey was there and has moved on to new hunting grounds. thus ends the mystery of odo, the owl/hawk hybrid.

[harley]

Well, I'm confused. I would be really interested if you can find out what it is. Know any bird watchers with big binoculars or major camera lenses? I love identifying birds. We've got a whole new group of them for me to learn out here at the shore.

[TromboneAl]

But what if he's a juvy (hasn't earned his stripes yet)?

[lazygood4nothinbum]

ya, me too. i have learned to accept my confusion so i am able to allow into my life without prejudice shape shifters such as odo.

my brother has a fancy 35mm digital with lenses but he's fussy about it. if odo is still here in the next few weeks i'll try again to get a better picture (i just don't want to freak it out).

edit for t-al. if a juvy, odo's gonna be one major lesser nighthawk cause he's already about 3 or 4 times the size of the one in your pic.

[kyounge1956]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazygood4nothinbum (snip) not all owls have the pronounced "ears" as does the great horned owl for instance, one of my favorites is the barn owl. look ma, no ears: (snip) thus ends the mystery of odo, the owl/hawk hybrid.

True, not all owls have ears. You said Odo had 'em but I sure didn't see any in photo #1, in which he appeared to be looking straight into the camera.

Hope he (or she) comes back.

P.S. could you ever tell what he was hunting? IIRC, nighthawks eat insects; I believe owls mostly eat mice and other small mammals.

[harley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kyounge1956 True, not all owls have ears. You said Odo had 'em but I sure didn't see any in photo #1, in which he appeared to be looking straight into the camera. Hope he (or she) comes back. P.S. could you ever tell what he was hunting? IIRC, nighthawks eat insects; I believe owls mostly eat mice and other small mammals.

I've seen barn owls munching on cicadas and grasshoppers quite enthusiastically.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

it's not a barn owl. that's all i know. maybe it's a hawk. it might just be some kid's wind up toy. all i know is it is too stealthy and too quick and too smart for me. so instead of trying to stalk it with a camera i'm going into the garden with a white flag.

i tried early this morning. i was vewy vewy quiet. i surveyed the area carefully, a little at a time. i went over the garden from one end to the other. i decided he'd flown the coup. so i put the camera away into my top pocket and instead gathered some fallen areca fronds for today's garbage pick-up. returning from my third trip to the curb, i closed the gate and headed round the back of the house to come inside.

from maybe just four feet above my head, the bastid takes flight. he soars over to the opposite side of the garden where he hides in the thick shrubbery. i walk over with camera in hand. not a sound. not a movement. i can not see where he is. i know odo has shape shifted onto a branch or a frond somewhere in the vicinity but he has turned on his cloaking device.

i turn my head for a second whereupon he comes out of hiding and before i can focus my own eyes, never mind ready the camera, he's already across the garden again and has disappeared into the landscape. i surrender. there's no hawk there. there's no owl there. there's no bird at all. please forgive these posts. i believe i've imagined the entire affair. odo is just a figment of my imagination. an apparition, a play of sunlight picked up by the lense of an obviously faulty digital camera.

i'm sending the camera to the shop and i'm sending myself to the nearest pub. bartender, another bloody mary if you please.

crossing off bird watching from my list of acquired skills.

ps, just in case you're wondering why someone might not be able to find even a big bird in their garden...
you can hardly even find my house through the trees (that's about a 50-60 ft high canopy)

[Bestwifeever]

Lazy, I don't know much about birds, but I gave these binoculars w/camera (<$50) to dh a few years ago (I bought ours at Radioshack):

Amazon.com: Bushnell Image View 8x21 Binocular w/VGA camera: Camera & Photo

Here's one we took using the binocular's camera from really bad far away seats (watching a really bad team )

You can easily take a decent photo of your elusive little brown birde while using these and then download them to your computer and share them with us.

[jambo101]

To the OP your bird looks like a female/juvenile Black Headed Grosbeak
http://www.photobirder.com/Bird_Phot...d_grosbeak.jpg

[Martha]

jambo, that is why the pictures are so tough. Sounds too big for a grosbeak.

Lazy, can I come and bird watch in your lovely yard?