How often have you been driving down the road and looked out the window and caught a glimpse of a big bird flying by, or you caught sight of a large bird perched in a tree?
My first thought is whether that sighting was of a bald eagle; if not, what was it?
A couple of weeks ago, I was driving by Muncy Creek, across from CVS in Muncy, when I looked up into the large sycamore tree by the creek and, to my surprise, saw two mature bald eagles perched there. No doubt the eagles were waiting there in hopes of spotting a fish swimming close enough to the surface to make a meal.
Identifying a large bird perched is a whole lot easier than catching sight of one off in the distance while soaring over.
No doubt the most interesting sighting is seeing a bald eagle, even though it is becoming much more common these days. Seeing an eagle when I was in high school was next to impossible, but these days, hardly a week goes by that I don’t see one somewhere in my travels.
Of course, the white head and tail on the large bird are obvious identifying characteristics, but keep in mind that the white doesn’t show up completely until the eagle is four or five years old. That big bird perched in a tree may well be an eagle, but it is still in the immature stage with little or no white showing.
If the bird you are watching is in flight, look for whether the broad wings are held mostly flat or horizontal to the body, not in the V-shape of the turkey vulture.
To make identification of large flying birds even more difficult, on rare occasions a golden eagle may show up in our area. The golden eagle is a bird found in the northern part of the country and in Canada. Adults resemble the immature bald eagles — no white heads and tails, and dark brown body plumage.
I suspect that a large bird in flight sometimes mistaken for an eagle is likely a turkey vulture. A turkey vulture’s body is covered with blackish-brown feathers, and a close-up look reveals a head and neck that are not feathered. When seen soaring above, look for that big difference in the flight pattern of a vulture and an eagle; the eagle’s wings are held in a horizontal position, while the vulture’s wings are held high above the horizontal position.
Obviously, the long legs, long beak, and gray body feathers of the heron set it apart considerably from eagles and vultures, but at a distance and while in flight, it can sometimes be hard to identify. In flight, the head and neck are drawn back in an S-shape, and the legs are held straight to the rear. They propel themselves with deep, pumping wing strokes.
Another fairly large bird we often see soaring over lakes and streams, like eagles, is the osprey. The osprey is much smaller than the eagle, but like the eagle, it often swoops down into the water to catch a fish. Their plumage is dark brown above and white below. The white head has a conspicuous black patch across each cheek. Like eagles, I have been out fishing on local streams, and I’ve had ospreys soar down and grab a trout from the same stretch I was fishing.
Well, as usual, I’ll be watching overhead and checking the trees next to lakes and streams in hopes of catching sight of one of our large flying birds.
