Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Admiral Nelson on January 09, 2008, 05:29:52 pm
-
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/SanFrancisco/Falcon/Falcon-4316.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/SanFrancisco/Falcon/Falcon-4328.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/SanFrancisco/Falcon/Falcon-4333.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/SanFrancisco/Falcon/Falcon-4337.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/SanFrancisco/Falcon/Falcon-4340.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/SanFrancisco/Falcon/Falcon-4345.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/SanFrancisco/Falcon/Falcon-4348.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/SanFrancisco/Falcon/Falcon-4351.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/SanFrancisco/Falcon/Falcon-4353.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/SanFrancisco/Falcon/Falcon-4357.jpg)
-
Looks like you weren't the only thing having a lunch break.
-
Props for the buzzard. :yes: There should be more of those culling those ****ty pigeons walking and flying around...
-
You tend to get good photos, don't you? I need to do a search in my personal archives and take a look if there's anything there that could be posted here.
Believe it or not, I have horrible time trying to name the bird. It looks like an eagle, but it is about the size of a falcon? Bah, should not try and guess the names of the bird that don't inhabit this country.
Mika
-
It is a peregrine falcon. There is a small family of them that live on the PG&E building.
-
I ashamed to admit that I was thinking more of the eagle. I actually had to find a picture of eagle, falcon and that bird close by. Only then it was obvious.
Now let's name the lunch.
-
Now I have been informed that it might be a red tailed hawk. I can't say I know much about birds. :) Supposedly the red tails are competing with the peregrines. The lunch was a pigeon. :)
-
Neato! :eek:
-
Some of those pictures are quite the orly owl material. :D
-
Peregrine? :nervous:
It looks like a buteo to me. It's tail doesn't seem long enough for a peregrine, the detail in chest is the wrong way (too big and sparse and vertical instead of horizontal, although variations do exist...), and the bright colour in the chest doesn't extend to it's face. Also, it's head is much bulkier than a peregrine's... like it's overall build (though that could be just the feathers puffing).
Dunno which exact species of buteo it is, but common buzzard would be my bet (just for probability). Red-tailed buzzard is another possibility, but they are close to each other anyway.
Although, if you saw it in flight, the species determination could become much easier. If you did, were the wingtips rounded or pointed? Peregrines (like all falcons) have pointed wing tips; Buteos (like other hawks) have rounded wings.
Here's a peregrine falcon:
(http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/animals/images/primary/peregrine-falcon.jpg)
And here's a common buzzard (Buteo buteo):
(http://www.everythingexmoor.org.uk/images/buzzard.jpg)
At any rate, you're lucky to have a family of any birds of pray nesting/hunting around your daily locations. But if those are peregrines there, my bet would be that this one is not a part of that family (or species).
Then again, I could be making an ass of myself... :D
EDIT: Daymn, too sl0w! :p
-
Maybe it is a red tailed hawk:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Red-tailed_Hawk.html
It looks like the juvenile second from the bottom, at least. I made a posting on the PG&E falcon site, so I am sure someone there will provide the correct information.
-
Now, could someone native English explain the difference between words "hawk", "falcon" and "buzzard" to the stupid? And could Herra then do the same with the good old language, since I think all of them could be described with "haukka"?
Mika
-
Some of those pictures are quite the orly owl material. :D
(http://i5.tinypic.com/7xnohgy.png)
-
Evidently "hawk" is American English for "buzzard". I had never heard the term 'buzzard' used to mean a bird of prey before Herra's post. Falcons are evidently a different species from hawks/buzzards, though I couldn't tell you how they are different. Both are birds of prey.
-
Yeah, it's extremely difficult to tell the exact species of buteo in many cases, mostly because there are a lot of interspecies variations, based on age and other things.
Where exactly do you live? If you're in America (like I suppose), then it's not the common buzzard then (it's an Old Word Buteo IIRC). In America, buteos are hawks, in Europe/Asia, they are buzzards. Red tailed hawk would be the most obvious possibility (since, IIRC, it is the most numerous species of buteo genus in North America, but it could also be something like a broad-winged hawk... :p
Oh, and to Mika's credit, eagles are much closer to buteonine hawks than buteo hawks are to falcons. ;)
And what comes to actual naming schemes of these daytime birds of prey and how they correspond to Finnish language:
Haukka (hawk) is pretty much an umbrella term in Finnish, often used to describe almost all smaller-than-eagle daytime birds of prey (or raptors, if you wish). Falcon corresponds roughly to Finnish term "jalohaukka" (noble hawk) (but not quite! explanation further...), and their most notable feature is pointed wingtips and relatively small size. Although, in English, I believe there's much bigger difference between hawk and falcon (and kestrel and hobby and merlin and harriers and osprey...).
Which are, of course, the following:
Hawk (haukka)
Kestrel (tuulihaukka -> wind hawk)
Hobby (nuolihaukka -> arrow hawk)
Merlin (ampuhaukka -> shooting hawk)
Falcon (jalohaukka, all the rest of the members of Falconidae - including Peregrine falcon)
Peregrine (muuttohaukka -> moving hawk)
Harriers (suohaukat -> swamp hawks)
Osprey (sääksi or kalasääski... sääksi is "osprey", kalasääski is literally "fish mosquito")
The taxonomy of raptors is a bit of a mess, you can go and check it out from Falconiformes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falconiformes) wiki article...
-
I live in San Francisco. There aren't any common buzzards in America. I have been informed that the bird is a first year red tailed hawk. These birds are evidently also known as "chickenhawks", although the bird I saw doesn't resemble Henery Hawk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCb9lh3nVd0). :)
-
Heh.. for a min as the pic was loading, I thought maybe a Golden Eagle.. that'd be a sight!!
-
Red tailed hawk. got tons of em around here in PA. as herra said, props for the buzzard :nod:! the less flying rats the better
-
Cool. I hope you took the pics from far, far away with a nice, safe zoom lens.
-
These were taken with a 24-105mm lens, at 105mm. The police were actually on hand to keep people back.
-
that ****'s hardcore.
awesome.
-
Nice photos! Thought it was a falcon at first, but the area around the beak seemed wrong....
Might be a Hawk, they are kind of like large Kites, whereas falcons are more like small Eagles iirc. The problem with Birds of Prey is that the come in such a vast variety of plumages that sometimes it's hard to tell. It could effectively be either, neither would have to go above a jog to catch a pigeon around there.
-
Knowledgeable people tell me it is a juvenile red tailed hawk. I was amazed to see it down in the financial district. Really, the City should make builders put up some hawk nests -- 50 pairs could chomp through 100 pigeons a day. I wonder if that would make a dent in the population? :)
-
HELLSYEAH! That is awesome! :yes:
We need more of that in the US!
-
Well, we have eagle owls here at Helsinki. One lives at the Olympic Stadium (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMKGuoLGvo8)... ;7
(http://www.hs.fi/kuvat/iso_webkuva/1135227842703.jpeg)
"O Rly?" :p
-
KYLLA OIKEASTAAN!
-
EI TIETÄ! :lol:
Anyway, birds of prey kick ass.
EDIT: No, I did not mean the Romuclan War Turkeys. Smartypants. :p
Our home back at north is really close to an old sea bay that has been almost entirely grassed. Also, our house is literally in the middle of a real deal forest (++, except for mosquitoes on bad summers) so on spring there's a lot of traffic going on, and during the summer there's still birds everywhere. There's even a watchtower built on the sea shore less than a mile from where our house is, and when you get there on spring day with good binoculars and know what you're looking for, it's easy to get something like 50 species during forenoon. And on winter there's been occasional great grey owls and stuff. The grey owl was really impressive when it flew around our house one winter, once making an appearance right outside the window, perching on top of some skis that were put to stand on the snow. I'm not even going to go to water birds... :rolleyes:
Hawks, buteos, ospreys, small falcons and harriers are pretty common, and then there are occasional white-tailed eagles on the move above the islands outside the coast. And then there are the bog areas on the indland, where you can see (and/or hear) pretty much anything that lives in Finland.
Sadly, here at Helsinki there's way too little raptors and owls and far too many sparrows and pigeons and ****ing seagulls that insist on starting to scream every summer morning at unholy times, often landing on top of buildings where people are supposed to be sleeping. :ick:
-
Anyway, birds of prey kick ass.
Yes. Yes they do.
(http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/en/images/d/d2/KlingonBirdofPrey.jpg)
NNNNNYYYEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW!!!
-
if i had a good camera i could post some awesome pictures of the bald eagles that swarm this place. the other day i counted 8 of them in the trees out my window (leaving enough room for twice as many ravens). when the salmon are running, its not unusual to see 30 or so of them out there.
-
Knowledgeable people tell me it is a juvenile red tailed hawk. I was amazed to see it down in the financial district. Really, the City should make builders put up some hawk nests -- 50 pairs could chomp through 100 pigeons a day. I wonder if that would make a dent in the population? :)
I've never understood why more birds of prey haven't moved into the cities to be honest.
-
Knowledgeable people tell me it is a juvenile red tailed hawk. I was amazed to see it down in the financial district. Really, the City should make builders put up some hawk nests -- 50 pairs could chomp through 100 pigeons a day. I wonder if that would make a dent in the population? :)
I've never understood why more birds of prey haven't moved into the cities to be honest.
Habitat.
Raptors prefer open nests with high visibility around them on all sides. They like to be close to the highest possible point. Skyscraper's don't lend themselves to that type of environment.
In addition, cities have little in the way of nest building materials (short of large parks, of course), and most raptors feed on small rodents and other ground-dwelling animals, not other birds.
The majority of raptor species prefer grasslands, marshes, low-density evergreen forest, and open alpine terrain for hunting, or shoreline and open water for those species that eat fish (e.g osprey).
-
I meant more in terms of numbers rather than species. For instance peregrine falcons would do rather well in London. There are plenty of pigeons to eat and the city isn't actually that full of skyscrapers.
And the suburbs are even better for them.
-
And the suburbs are even better for them.
Yes, plenty of toddlers to make off with.
-
Superb photos! Thanks for sharing. ^^
-
And the suburbs are even better for them.
Yes, plenty of toddlers to make off with.
Judging by some of the toddlers I've seen in London, that might be a better thing than it looks....
-
I can see how seeing something like that is utterly amazing to big city folk.
Yup. Sure do. Me an' cousin Bubba seez those critters very often. Damn pest. Kill the chickens. Yep.
*lolz
No, really. I live in a small city that has a bit of nature perserved around it so I see wildlife more often then somone in a big city. then again, I spend half the year if not more in the big city in the vicinity, so I can understand the fascination.
-
Those are some really spectacular photos. Especially the ones when it's looking right into the camera.
-
Habitat.
Raptors prefer open nests with high visibility around them on all sides. They like to be close to the highest possible point. Skyscraper's don't lend themselves to that type of environment.
Yeah, but they like lightstands...
-
edit: yay everything's been answered already
Ok. The bird is a 2cy Red-Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), meaning it was born on last year (told by uniform coverts and secondaries, no moult marks, pale and unformly worn remiges.
It's common in most of the continental North America, and has also been recorded in Europe. Common refers to visibility; large raptors are seldom, if ever, as numerous as smaller birds.
I meant more in terms of numbers rather than species. For instance peregrine falcons would do rather well in London. There are plenty of pigeons to eat and the city isn't actually that full of skyscrapers.
And the suburbs are even better for them.
The main reason for this is called pesticides. Numbers of Peregrine Falcon collapsed dramatically in 1950s-1970s, and even in sparsely-populated Northern Scandinavia numbers are only as of now slowly climbing to somewhere near the previous levels. This is actually a pretty complex thing, but the current consensus is that as long as the species is uncommon, it favours the best breeding conditions it can. Combined with raptor persecution this has dramatically shifted the fitness from bold to the shy.
So, because Peregrine is uncommon and only sloooowly recovering in Europe, it's more likely that the new pairs will nest on the more optimal areas. Also, the Peregrine Falcon genome in eastern USA is a bit of mess, introduced birds from wrong subspecies and all kinds of jazz :/
Raptors as such actually like cities. Easy food, especially in winter. Where I live, we have several courting Eagle Owls, lots of Goshawks, some Sparrowhawks, and accidentally Merlins and sometimes even large falcons. Kites favour towns and villages, and in Indian dumps you can have flocks of tens of thousands of Black Kites. Lowland towns actually have more in common with mountains than their surrounding areas. This shows in avifauna - swifts, pigeons, black redstarts..
edit: Wiki says there are Peregrines in London, dunno about that.
-
IIRC most of them have been introduced to the area artificially rather than simply moving in on their own.
-
It looks amazed at how amazed all you people are. :p
-
IIRC most of them have been introduced to the area artificially rather than simply moving in on their own.
Some are natural, Tower Blocks have sealed roofs to ensure that people don't jump off of them (I know... Don't ask), Peregrines sometimes decide to build their nests on the ledges just under the roof of the tower block, it acts exactly like an indent in a high pinnacle of rock, which is their natural nesting place. Pickings are good, pigeons are plentiful, Peregrines actually do extremely well in London, there was something like 60 Pairs known to have nested in Tower Blocks across the UK last year
-
IIRC most of them have been introduced to the area artificially rather than simply moving in on their own.
Hope they have checked their background. Lesser White-Fronted Goose introductions were halted when it was detected that the bird genome had parts of
A) Greylag Goose
B) White-Fronted Goose
C) Siberian, not European, ssp. of LWFG.
And similar things have happened with Peregrines as well, American ssps' genome polluting other populations. That was one of the main reasons why falconry is under strict control in Europe.
-
San Francisco's peregrine falcons: George and Gracie (http://www2.ucsc.edu/scpbrg/aboutSF.htm).
-
"About George: George's identity was revealed in 2005 by the VID (visual identification) band worn on his left leg. George's VID band reads C/U, and SCPBRG had fitted George with his this band in 1999." :wtf:
-
I am so jealous. :(
-
I am so jealous. :(
Fiiiine, we'll go out and get you a VID band to wear on your leg, too. Sheesh!
-
Hm, Buzzards. We have lots of them in Switzerland, too bad they don't eat ****ity pigeons.
So it's my job.