Vulture or Eagle?

[SourRoses]

I suppose it might be a dumb question.. because I have seen individuals and pairs of Bald Eagles a couple of times before, here in South FL.... But I am wondering if the bird I keep seeing outside is an Eagle or a Vulture.
It's has 'the wings of an eagle' to my eye

... but it is flying in circles... which I thought more of a Vulture thing... Only, the circles seem to be more of a figure 8 that I can see outside my window.. along with some passes over the house I can't see... and then it goes back to the same figure 8 pattern. All alone.
Amazing the number of birds we have out there this spring... our neighbor has a lot of bird feeders out there.

 

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

Most large birds soar- eagles, vultures, and hawks will all circle in a good thermal. Google birdwatching and find some pics of what shape each looks like in flight and you can ID it easily enough. The proportion and shape of wings and tails vary so it should be possible with a guide to tell what you are seeing.

 

[Illia]

If its wings are a little more long and narrow - Eagle.

Winds are thicker and bird has small head - Vulture.

 

[dkvart1]

and yes, vultures fly solo as well, not always in a group.

 

[SourRoses]

Unfortunately, I couldn't see much of the head or tail... partly because it was only in clear sight for a moment or two before I had to look for the wing shape between the pine trees.. I did notice, however, that the base of both wings looked normally full of feathers, but towards the wing tips, there were almost one feater sized gaps between the last 3 feather or so... I thought maybe from molting? But then it was even on both wings.. for the moment or two I saw it at least.

I'm not a good bird watcher

Come back here birdy!

 

[equine623]

Bald eagles fly with their wings straight out to the sides

Vultures have their wings angled up more, in a slight "v" shape

HTH

 

[desertdarlene]

Quote:
That's exactly how I learned to identify them at a distance, too. Where I live, we have golden eagles and they're fairly evenly brown all over depending on their age, while the vultures are black with gray under their wings. The eagles are also larger than vultures. wingspan-wise.

 

[Cetawin]

There are other ways to tell also...on the tip of a vultures wings, it looks like a couple of fingers pointing out...and eagle's wings are perfectly aligned all the way to the end...no separation and always straight out in flight.

The other and easiest way...if you can get outside and look up as the bird flies over...if half - 2/3rds of the underside of the wing is white/silvery looking....it is a vulture. An immature bald with be splotchy white, cream and brown tones...and adult all black with a solid white tail and head.

 

[arabianequine]

The vultures I have seen are darn scary looking, they don't look like an eagle to me thats for sure.

 

[SourRoses]

Woooo Hoooo! Thank you everyone! That really helped!

It's an Eagle! It's an Eagle!

It was soaring with it's wings straight out to the sides... It was uniformly brown/black, no white or silver from the underside... and it had a very large wingspan.

And it's sticking around this area! I saw it again today!

Today we had.. the birds singing.. the owl hooting... and something making the occasional hawkish(?) eagleish(?) cry noise (Eagle?)... and the chicks craning their necks up and cheeping back at the birdies