Help me identify this bird

indy_man

Anyone have any idea what this bird is, it was taken last summer in North Galway?

ZX7R

Looks like a young buzzard

indy_man

There are some buzzards in the area according to the bio diversity map.

Scotty #

Buzzard. They regularly feed on the ground on earth worms and frogs are one of their favourites.

irishguy1012

Any idea what this bird is please? Spotted in Botanic Gardens today.

Alun

Female blackcap.

10-10-20

Am I bonkers or could I have heard a corncrake on the Eastern side of Three Rock, Dublin?

I heard the distinctive "crakk-crakk" and immediately googled it for similar sounds and it was exactly as it was online. No sighting, just the call. The area is scrub surrounded by pasture.

Scotty #

There's been a handfull of reports so far this year from Tory Island and Inishbofin but none in Dublin (or anywhere else 😔). That's not to say it's not a corncrake, but it would be most unusual.

Birdnuts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120553537#Comment_120553537

Could be Red Grouse - google a call recording to see??

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120561230#Comment_120561230

I had a listen, it's not the same at all, but I can see why you thought of it.

magicbastarder

i was wondering whether it could even have potentially been a frog croaking, but it's too late for that.

gzoladz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120553537#Comment_120553537

Not impossible, it could have been on migration at this time of the year.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120563100#Comment_120563100

We do have frogs around here, but it wasn't the call of a frog.

Scotty #

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120553537#Comment_120553537

Pheasant perhaps?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZVOj3B1nLY

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120573579#Comment_120573579

Actually - you know what, on hearing that audio it must have been a pheasant as we do have them around here. Disapointing that it wasn't an interloping corn-crake, but we can discount it now!

spurious

Heard this bird for the first time two days ago. North Strand area of Dublin.

Can't find anything like it in native birds. Didn't catch sight of it at all.

Apologies for portrait format of video, big gap between calls and random shots of my bathroom.

https://youtube.com/shorts/LI9uuKAwiyU

Seth Brundle

I'd have said it is a wren but the pitch sounds slightly off.

spurious

The general sound of it is very like a wren, but 'the words in the wrong order', so to speak. :)

Could it be another bird imitating?

Esel

Wild guess - starling?

spurious

I will try see can I get a look at it tomorrow morning.

magicbastarder

i have been recommended - but never tried - the merlin bird identification app from cornell, which might help.

magicbastarder

i just tried it on the merlin app, and it seems fairly confident it's a wren. one of the sample recordings seems a close match to my ears.

spurious

What a useful app.

looksee

Sorry I don't have a pic, but I was just watching the two buzzards that live close by circling round my garden and adjacent areas when a large bird, very similar to a buzzard with the 'square' ended wings flew over, it didn't have the under wing markings of the buzzard and it was very fast, flying in a straight line rather than circling like the buzzards. It was bigger than a buzzard, with a similar tail, straight rather than spread. I am sure it was a raptor of some sort (ie, it wasn't a crow or similar) but have no idea what it might have been. North Waterford near the Comeraghs. Any ideas?

magicbastarder

Not a kite? It would have a forked tail and the most common raptor bigger than a buzzard.

looksee

Thank you for that, I did not see it for very long, it was flying very fast, but I don't think I saw a forked tail, and it was not that far away and I did not see the underwing markings, though the buzzard markings were very clear to see. I would like to think it might have been a golden eagle but I realise that is extremely unlikely, but the shape is right and the fact that it looked plain dark underneath, which I gather is what they look like.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120648399#Comment_120648399

A Golden Eagle wingspan is 6 - 7.5 feet. Buzzard in 3.5 - 4.5 feet. The difference would be immediately noticeable.

looksee

Well that was the most noticeable thing, I had been watching the buzzards and they were still circling round, then the size of the other bird was very striking.

Two of us saw it and said more or less simultaneously 'that's not a buzzard!'

Scotty #

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120648399#Comment_120648399

Raven perhaps? What colour was it?

looksee

Its a possibility, though the wing ends were not fringed like a raven's, I am not familiar with ravens particularly but if they fly like crows then no, it had a different flight style. It was plain dark but on the whole I would have said it was more dark brownish than black. Thanks!

DBB

It was never a juvenile white-tailed sea eagle, no? In a similar situation that you describe, I saw one flying towards me at a midlands lake last year, and immediately thought "whoa... that's not a buzzard!"

This one flew so close that I clearly saw a wing tag, and although it was quite buzzard-like, it was a lot bigger! The juveniles are brown.