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Subject:

Golden Eagle - DC National Mall

From:

Ross Geredien

Reply-To:

Ross Geredien

Date:

Wed, 2 May 2012 10:53:40 -0700

About 20 minutes ago, Bob Cantilli and I saw a Golden Eagle soaring and swoop-diving over the National Mall near the Washington Monument.  The bird was essentially all dark, with a very slight two-tone pattern between the primaries and the wing arms, i.e. slightly different shade of brown/gray.  The bird was back-lit, so this was hard to see, but alternately the chest and arms looked slightly lighter or darker than the primaries.  No clear undertail pattern could be seen.  There were light areas in the outer wings, reminiscent of Red-shouldered "commas" but not nearly as pronounced.  The tips were "buzzard"-like in the outer-most primaries.  The bird was also soaring steadily on a slight dihedral.  Structure was long- and broad-winged, eagle-like, but with a smallish head, not protruding nearly enoughl for Bald Eagle, and no noticeable white patches in the pits or near the inner wing/body. Some of the primaries and tail feathers were missing, so
 the bird was in molt.

At first, we suspected Turkey Vulture, but the dihedral was not as pronounced.  Then the bird also started to tuck and swoop-dive several times, each time rolling back upwards.  When it came in relatively close, we could not see any baldness or redness in the head, and the head appeared too large for a TV.  We have checked numerous photos for dark morphs of Red-tailed Hawk, Swainson's Hawk, and Rough-Legged and have ruled all of them out due to the lack of tail banding and light coloring/barring in the primaries, and no other distinct coloration other than the brown/gray plumage.  

Bob is also an experienced hawk bander at Cape May Hawkwatch and felt confident of the ID after we called it.
 
Other than this bird, the mall and Constitution Gardens were slow, with no warblers.


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