Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Bird Sighting

Sunday on the way to Church we saw something unusual. In front of the pump station there was a dead animal in the road being eaten by a large bird. When the bird flew I didn't think it looked like a buzzard. They boys thought it was a hawk but it was the wrong shape. The bottom of the tail and the wing tips were white. I had seen one of these once before and I think I know what it was.
I believe the bird we saw was a Crested Caracara. It's in the falcon family. It's also on the Mexican flag and is considered a good luck omen. There are some excellent pictures on this web site I found by a nature photographer (CLICK HERE). His picture of the bird landing on the ground is the one Lynne said looked like the bird she saw.

2 comments:

Grandpa said...

I don't think I have seen one of these!

Unknown said...

We used to see those all the time in Sutherland Springs. I didn't think they came that far up north. The girls used to run around the yard yelling "caracara"... "caracara"!