I would say a hawk. Not sure where you are living, but, we have Red Tailed Hawks, Cooper's Hawks, etc. around here that look very similar in shape and color scheme.
Ok, I found through wikipedia the sound that he makes (the same I have heard there) and I am sure it was a hawk. I live in Germany, in an area with a lot of forest and meadows with old trees.
Very nice Sven. If you see it hunting and killing , it is a hawk. If you see it feeding off of already dead animals, it is a buzzard. Hawks are predators, Buzzards are scavengers. Have fun snapping shots of him, he looks cool.
@peggysirk@datsyukian@svenson What is called "Buzzard" or "Common Buzzard" or "Buteo Buteo" in Europe is a beautiful raptor - a bird of prey. What is called "Buzzard" in the US is an ugly scavanger that eats carrion. What he has taken a picture of looks like the bird in flight in this Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buteo_buteo
@marthashields excellent, very good to know, I thought that I had seen a different bird with the name Buzzard somewhere, that is why I wondered where he was living. here in Michigan, US, we have the scavenger Turkey Buzzard, with the featherless head, can get to 3' tall or so, much bigger than the hawks. thank you for the info Marti, always happy to learn new things.
I don't see the similarity this hawk picture at all - the hawk in your link has spots and doesn't have strong white areas - the bird you have taken a picture of looks just like this buzzard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Buzzard_UK09.JPG
@marthashields you are right the Accipter Gentilis is also known as the Goshawk the adults of which are grey :) this is definately a European buzzard :) we have loads of them around here
Tweets ahoy!
Join the Group
Pin With Me
http://www.calliebowdish.com/TurkeyVulture.htm
Well, first of all, thank you for your opinions :-). Here is another picture of a hawk, a young one. Looks quite similar. "My" bird made a special sound, I could identificate it on the german wikipedia site. So, I think it is a hawk, but still not sure.
http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:AccipterGentilisJuvenileFlight1.jpg&filetimestamp=20070425164338
It is very likely they sound similar.