Osprey in Bradford?

by Val
(Bradford, Ontario, Canada)

Mystery Bird

My family and I were driving home through Bradford when I spotted a very large bird on the top of a telephone pole.

It looked black and white in colour. We turned around to go back and take a picture, but as we went back by it some smaller birds were chasing it away.

Unfortunately I didn't get a good shot. It had an incredible wing span. We did get a good look at it really resembles the Osprey in the video on this site.

EDIT: One of our readers added some information ... I just wanted to add to the timeline of the Osprey sighting. I happened to be hiking along Line XX & XXXXXX Street in Bradford West Gwillimbury, Ontario. I also spotted the huge nest on top of the telephone pole. I was hearing an interesting bird call 300 meters away from the nest and as I approached it, the Osprey made its presence known and was marking its territory by flying in a circle high above me while making the same sounds, almost a clucking sound if you will. It was a solid black/brown with a small head, no neck, and a white belly. I began to look up the difference between Osprey vs. Eagle nests and learned that Osprey’s are more inclined to be in the vicinity of human structures and would use light poles and telephone poles, whereas Eagles would use the crevices of trees. Then I found your post and it surely confirmed it is an Osprey living there. I hear one small Osprey crying from the nest as well. I took a couple of photos and a video of the Osprey circling over me. It was agitated by my presence and I could tell it was considering swooping down towards me. I just kept walking and moved to the opposite side of Line 13 to show that I wanted nothing to do with their nest. If it did come towards me, the Osprey would be half the size of my body, I am only 5 feet though lol. But it’s wing-span is probably 90 cm each side. It was an awesome encounter. I have also seen two very large birds fly over the same area almost every evening and am trying to make out if they are Bald Eagle or Heron.

Thanks for the report of your sighting, if you have other pictures, Val, just submit them to me using the same form, and I will add them at the bottom of this page. You can send as many pictures as you like (one at a time) and I can add the good ones here.

The Osprey has black and white markings on the face, but the Turkey Vulture has black and white markings on the under-side of the wings.

There is something "Turkey Vulture-ish" about the wing tips on the picture above, do any of our readers know, or can they tell the species from this picture?

We'd love to know.