We observed this bird soaring high over south White Rock Creek on a beautiful Saturday morning. We could see that this was a bird of prey, but it was clearly not one of the usual suspects. It was too elegant to be a Red-tailed Hawk or a Red-shouldered Hawk, too big to be a Mississippi Kite, and had too short of a tail to be a Cooper’s Hawk.

These pictures are not very good. They were taken at extremely long distance, and quality results were not expected. But, there was something unusual about this bird (at least in my experience), and I just couldn’t identify it in the field. I took these photographs hoping they would at least be good enough that I could compare them against my reference material back at the house.

They were. This is the first Osprey I have ever observed in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. An exciting find!

Observations Details

CountyDallas
CityDallas
DateSep 22, 2012
Time of DayMorning
TemperatureHot (greater than 89°F/32°C)
WeatherPartly Cloudy
HabitatRecreation-Park
Type of BehaviorFlying
GenderUncertain
MaturityAdult
ObserverChris Jackson

6 Replies to “Osprey – A First!”

  1. This Saturday morning, I observed a very large bird atop our neighbor’s chimney. This neighbor lives on top of a hill (we are across the street, more on the side of the hill. The bird had some white on its head and breast area and back and wings were black. The only bird it resembled in my bird book was an Osprey. Could I be right about this?

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