Expert: Julia Booth - 10/18/2010

Question
I have seen this bird two times in the past couple of weeks on the side of the road maybe eating something dead.  It was a rather large bird maybe hawk-sized.  I couldn't see the beak, but i do know that the head all the way down to the shoulders was white and the rest of the bird was black.  It was a very striking sight.  I saw this bird again this early afternoon sitting in the same place.  As far as i know, there was only one of them.  It's driving me crazy as i love my birds and have many different species come to my feeders.  I live in southern Michigan and have never seen anything like this.  Any ideas?  Sorry i can't describe the beak.

Answer
There are three possibilities here, that immediately spring to mind. Perhaps you can help me narrow it down.

First, there is a white-headed vulture. It meets the physical description. The problem is, they've never been found outside of Africa:
http://www.zoolex.org/zoolexstat/pictdir/778/0.jpg

Secondly, it could be a Crested Caracara:
http://www.greglasley.net/caracara.html

And lastly, there's the Osprey. If you live near water, which being in Michigan you probably do, I'm guessing this is probably what you saw:
http://www.geometer.org/TT2004/Photos/images/Osprey.jpg

Look at those images and tell me what you think and we'll go from there.



Julia