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Quote:

Originally Posted by bell (Post 4662686)

how do you tell if it's an African swallow?

It's not an African swallow. You can tell 'cos if it was it would have been carrying a coconut - probably by the husk.

Might have been a chicken nugget in it's natural, un-fried state?

There are lots of Turkey Vultures out there, the 3rd time, last time I went there one was flying high overhead of the property.

I'd sign on to it being a black vulture from South America, but it's not black headed (nor red).

Last night my wife was watching season 18 of the TV show Survivor, shot in Brazil. They showed footage of some vultures, I rewound the tape and took these pictures of the screen. These are taken at angles which I have been unable to replicate, I'm not sure why.

Going off photos alone of the mystery bird in flight, it certainly could be a vulture of some kind. The Black Vulture of South America has a wing span of 1.5 meters (almost five feet), could my excitement of the sighting added two feet?

Link:
http://www.arthurgrosset.com/sabirds/blackvulture.html

Vultures tend to sit more up right, 30 or 45 degrees. Seabirds and ground dwellers/nesters tend to sit/stand with a lower more level profile as seen in the photos I took. That said the roof angle is there, and if a bird sat at it's typical angle it might purposely correct for the roof angle.

http://s184.photobucket.com/albums/x295/kach22i/MISC/
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...-Vulture-1.jpg
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...-Vulture-2.jpg

Compare:
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...MISC/KITE1.jpg
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...ISC/BIRD-3.jpg

My vote is definitely not a Turkey Vulture. It wasn't standing like a Turkey Vulture and the head is all wrong. Vultures heads have no feathers -- apparently it helps when they stick their heads in carcasses. Here's a Turkey Vulture.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ey_Vulture.jpg

It doesn't look like any hawk that I've seen by the way it was standing on the roof. The hawks that I've seen tend to stand upright like the vulture in the above picture.

The "V" of the wings doesn't really count in the picture where it's taking off since it's flapping during takeoff. The "V" thing has to do when soaring in the open sky.

I'm guessing some sort of gull. You'd be surprised how big the wingspans of gulls can be.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Birdsniper.jpg