Against the unhelpful glare of an overcast sky around 10:00 a.m., I 
spotted two large unfamiliar-looking birds. Here's what I was able to 
observe about one of them; I'd appreciate your comments.

The bird seemed uniformly darkish in color -- no white, red, stripes or 
bands. The tail was noticeably squared off. The wings looked quite long, 
somewhat pointed, and more crooked at the wrist than a buteo's . I 
thought I glimpsed slightly paler feathers near the trailing edge and 
toward the outside of its wings. The bird mixed soaring with swooping 
and swerving (in reaction to the other bird, perhaps), and held its 
wings flat or low, not in a dihedral.

My first, hopeful thought was Common Raven, but the tail shape was 
wrong.  I ruled out immature Bald Eagle and both vultures because the 
wings were quite different. And the bird clearly wasn't one of the 
familiar neighborhood Red-shouldered Hawks or a visiting Red-tailed Hawk 
or Osprey.

When I came inside and looked at my references, I started to wonder if 
I'd seen a first-summer Mississippi Kite. Your thoughts?


Janet Millenson
Potomac, MD (Montgomery County)

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"Look at the birds!" -- Pascal the parrot

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