Name that bird question???

[zman]

I noticed this bird sitting on my roof in Bethlehem Sunday morning and I am trying to nail down it’s identity- It was about 12-16” in height, (talons to head), color as it appears in the picture, and he/she just perched there for 10-15” taking in the view. It had a green tracking band on it’s left leg. When I went to get my DSLR telephoto it left-

I checked it out on whatbird.com as Forestgnome suggested (great to talk with you on Moosilauke ) but still not sure……. I think it’s a Harrier hawk, perhaps a juvenile-

Certainly looks well fed!

 

[SkierSteve]

Call me crazy, but it looks like some sort of albino pigeon to me!

 

[Fisher Cat]

That would make two of us called crazy, or incredibly wrong. It doesn't appear to have typical raptor features, such as talons or beak shape.

 

[nartreb]

That makes three of us. Described height is a little large for a domestic pigeon (a.k.a. dove), but, no disrespect intended, a couple of inches of observer error can be expected in size estimates.

Domestic pigeons are often a bit larger than their wild counterparts, and more likely to be white. It might be a racing pigeon, which could help explain the presence of a band.

 

[zman]

My first thought was also that it sort of looked like a pigeon- HOWEVER- I don't ever recall seeing a pigeon in or around Bethlehem- let alone a pigeon on steroids: the talons are not visible from the angle the pictures were taken- but before I went to get my telephoto I had my binocs and, from a different angle, this bird had VERY LARGE raptor type talons. The beak does lack the little "hook" at the end...

Thanks for the feedback and no offense taken.... perhaps it's like when you want to be at a certain location, and looking at your map, you can talk yourself into making the land features fit the map.....Hey, that's and odd looking bird, lets make it into somethig more exciting than a ....pigeon

 

[Kevin Judy and Emma]

Sorry

I've got to go with the pigeon believers. Maybe someone in the area has racing birds.

KDT

 

[zman]

It's a pigeon!!!!! dang it

1Happyhiker just sent this to me:

Marty . . . I don’t want to “hijack” your thread on VFTT, so I’m NOT posting this. Instead, I’m just sending this info to you alone to do with as you wish.
Since the same bird that you saw was out on our back deck a few days ago, I felt comfortable in forwarding your photo to Dave Govatski and telling him that I also had seen this bird. I gave you credit for the photo, and I told Dave that my wife and I had seen the same thing with our own eyes.
Anyway, Dave is an expert when it comes to birds, and he immediately identified it as a pigeon. However, he could not identify the exact breed since there was not enough in the photo to go on.
Now, that it’s nearly certain that it’s a pigeon, some other things that have happened recently which come to mind and might be related. A week or so ago I saw a group of a dozen or so birds that had just taken flight from the Tea House located about midway between Twin Mountain and Bethlehem. I thought to myself at the time that those look like really big pigeons. But, until now, I never gave it a second thought.
The other thing that might be related is that there could be a pigeon breeder in the area. And perhaps his/her flock might have been the target of whatever critter got into the chicken coup of the lady who has been supplying us with eggs. ”