It was linked it at the start of this topic.
When birds are flying, there are many ways to identify them. First, you can look at the flight pattern. For example, some hawks will glide, unlike sparrows which will usually flap their wings. Then, you can look at the birds colour and size, which can help you narrow down the bird species a little bit. Lastly, you can view the wing shape. As an example, swallow wings are very different than warbler wing shapes. With a combination of all these factors, you may be able to identify a flying bird.
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yeah between, the days when I created this post and now I have learned a lot, thanks to you all
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This actually helps me a lot:
- Brahminy Kites just go in a circle with rounded wings with back-curved tips and a round tail, except when they are low in elevation.
- White-bellied sea eagles generally just soar, but their short tails, proportionally long wings that angle forwards at the shoulder giving it a V-shape, along with their ENORMOUS size, just make this bird extremely distinctive.
- Crested Honey Buzzards are rather rapid in flight, with no flapping but very shallow circles, and theyre long tail separates them from Brahminy Kites.
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@karthikeyaeco These are the correct parts of a bird! (Bird and Moon Comics). Sorry. I couldnât resist!
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No problem, and thank u sir for correcting me
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Wow. This meme⌠Is just⌠PerfectâŚ
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In my experience the best advice in this thread is that offered by @sedgequeen, which incidentally is the same advice offered by Kenn Kaufman in the book Advanced Birding, which is to spend more time watching birds you already know.
Find a place where you see some really common birds, such as a silo with roosting pigeons, where the pigeons frequently fly off it and fly around. Watch the pigeons for about 30 minutes. Find a place with some mourning doves (or whatever other doves are common in your area). Watch them for about 30 minutes.
Now come back and do the same thing another day. Do this several times. You need some time for your brain to process and internalize all the information.
You will probably find, after doing this, that you can now instantly identify the difference between a pigeon and a mourning dove, in flight, even if you just have a brief glimpse, if lighting is poor, the angle is strange, etc. Furthermore, you might also find that you develop the useful skill of seeing a dove and immediately noticing: âSomething is weird about that dove.â (which is often a sign that it is a species that you are not as familiar with.)
This same general pattern can be useful with any type of bird. For example, if youâre struggling with kites, find whatever type of kite is easiest to see or most common in your area, and watch it as much as you can. Donât stop when you IDâed itâŚthatâs only when your focus starts. Watch it as long as you can.
Then, eventually, you will see some other kite and notice that something is different about its flight pattern.
I donât see kites often, so I canât do this with them, but for the local birds, Iâm pretty good. For example this morning my girlfriend and I saw a bald eagle, and it was backlit, and far off, and we didnât have binoculars. But we both immediately noticed that it was an eagle because of its flight pattern and shape. Earlier we saw a red-shouldered hawk. The other day I saw a cooperâs hawk. Another day, red-tailed hawk. I was all relatively confident of these birds almost immediately, because I have spent hours watching them closely, so I instantly recognize aspects of their shape and flight pattern.
Itâs all about putting in the time watching them, and letting you brain absorb and process the information that you are seeing.
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yeah, I have find out what you have told
pigeons flight is very fast and erratic(I can hear there wings flapping the stomach)
doves donât flab there wings as pigeons do they do in a very beautiful way, they do it efficeintly
Some birds make distinct sounds when they fly like rose ringed parakeet
Some birds flap there wings once and fall and flap and fall, now I can distinct between them because in this case so some make noise some not, some travel in groups some not
As in case predatory bird it is quite simple(in my obs and area)
kites are like kite, someone mentioned here, there way flying is lazy(in my words)
eagles (not found here) do not have v shaped wing they have straight wings and if you see closely they have strong claw for hunting which kites lack(they are scavengers, so they hunt very less)
and comes small predatory bird like falcons and shikras they are small and have a distinctive and effortless flying, they have generally long legs a very distinctive feature which points them out from other birds.
and yes if you see some big bird flying that is flying like it looks tired but its flying( vey slow but continous flaps) then you are looking at bird that can be heron, egret, stork, ibis, spoonbills, etc. you can see their distinct head, these fly in groups generally. thatâs the knowledge I have gained by seeing the birds early in the morning(at 6:00 am) I continued this process for a week then I got sick of cold weather :), but thanks to you and fellow other members, I have gained this knowledge, I want to tell you more.
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how do you differentiate between milvus kite and brahminy kites, while flying? because that distinct plumage comes after thy become adult, before that they are like milvus kites?
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Pigeons make a clapping sound by wings as itâs a signal of danger, not because theyâre bad at flying (fat doesnât help them, but theyâre living in places with a few predators).
Look at distribution of white, how one has rounded tail and other has already kite-y tail as juvenile, one has uniform tail and body and other has barred tail and streaked body, one has pretty light bill and other doesnât (though yellow-billed ssp. might be different), also leg colour, black kites donât get yellow legs until theyâre adults.
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oooh thanks for correcting me :)
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Some birds in flight simply canât be identified if theyâre too fast, too small, or the lighting isnât very good. These I classify as UFOs â unidentified flying ornithoids.
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Fork tail. Milvus have forked tail, Brahminy Kite has a round tail :)
Nope. I have seen storks soar almost as effortlessly as a kite.
they have long neck, and long legs
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anyways Thatâs what I saw, I can be wrong or right :)
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Storks can do both, theyâre flying slowly, but faster than big herons, but they also can âsoarâ e.g. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/75154624 they were going up on warm stream as raptors do, herons wonât do that
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yeah I agree to you, Thanks for correcting me :)
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thanks for correcting me :)
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