What bird??

[thewarriorchild]

While watching the skys for predators I saw a very large black bird with large white circles on its wings. It was flying overhead and I was surprised to see such large circles. I looked at the Hawk Mtn site to ID it but I did not find anything..any one know what it was? It was a large bird... Do I need to worry?

 

[amazondoc]

Young vultures can have white areas on the underside of their wings, but I wouldn't call them circles...

Look here for pics:

http://www.backyardbirdcam.com/gallery/turkey-vulture-imm.htm

 

[thewarriorchild]

Nope it was a circle no doubt about it. I was so shocked by it that I forgot to tell my daughter to look... odd

 

[amazondoc]

I dunno! Vultures are about the only really large black bird in this country, although several brown birds like eagles might look black against the light. A lot of birds migrate through NJ, though, so there's a wide variety to choose from. Tis a puzzlement!

 

[thewarriorchild]

Now it makes me more curious!! yea It was against a bright sky so it could have been brown but it certainly had circles...

 

[cmb19]

If the white areas were at the ends of the wings then take a look at some different pictures of black vultures. They're different than turkey vultures and aren't as common in the Northern part of the country.

 

[thewarriorchild]

Nope not them but it looks awfully like the dark one here except the white spots looked like circles...
http://www.peregrinefund.org/Explore_Raptors/hawks/ruffleg.html

 

[mmd]

We saw several large raptors with what looked like white circles on their wings while we were driving across nebraska and wyoming. Couldn't find them in ID books.
What about an immature golden eagle - these pics don't look like what we saw, but it's closer - http://www.peregrinefund.org/Explore_Raptors/eagles/goldeagl.html