Name this bird.

<p>This is a few weeks ago in Southern New Hampshire. They were circling like vultures.</p><div></div>

<p>I believe it is a vulture...</p>

<p>Right, it looks like a vulture to me although the image is small and not very clea.</p>

<p>I'd say it's a Turkey Vulture:</p>

<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_Vulture">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_Vulture</a></p>

 

<p>Turkey Vulture,yup. Red head Turkey Vulture, Black is the Black Vulture which wouldn't likely be that far north.</p>

<p>If this guy follows you around you could be in trouble.</p>

<p>Thanks, guys. Must have been some road kill nearby.</p>

<p>I name the fred!</p>

<p>Tour guides on the Rogue River here in Oregon call these critters "Oregon Condors."</p>

<p>Looks like a turkey vulture. In this photo, the face looks red to me, which denotes a turkey vulture; a black face would be a black vulture.</p>

<p>George, I think.</p>

<p>A Black face is not 100% diagnostic for a Black Vulture. Immature Turkey Vultures also have black heads.</p>

<p>If you can see them closely enough, a <a href="http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black_Vulture/id">Black Vulture</a> (BV) really is black, but a <a href="http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/turkey_vulture/id">Turkey Vulture</a> (TV) is a very dark brown, more like a Wild Turkey. Hard to tell when they are flying a couple hundred feet up, though.</p>

<p>In flight, the easiest way to separate them is the underwing pattern. The TV has the broad pattern of silver or grey on the undersides of the wings that extends from the wing tips to the tail. On a BV, the silver/grey appears only on the outer fore tips (maybe 1/4-1/3 from the tip in, and not all the way back) of the wings.</p>

<p>The other way to tell, though it is becoming harder to use, is range. TVs range all across the lower 48, particularly in summer, but more and more will overwinter. BVs have historically been birds of the extreme south of the US from Texas east, formerly going only as far north as Virginia or about. More and more, though, they are coming farther north. They're nesting as far north as New Jersey now, and <a href="http://ebird.org/">eBird </a>sightings have them as far north as Massachusetts!</p>

<p>Along with the underwing pattern, look how broad and stubby the black vulture's wings look:</p>

<p>http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/birds/ohio_birds/images/black_vulture.jpg</p>

<p>This photo also shows the silver/white vs. black pattern which as you can see is very different than that of the turkey vulture, which also has wings that are noticably longer in proportion to their width that the black vulture.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>It is a turkey vulture.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Good one, I liked it</p>

<p>My other answer to "name this bird" is to name him Mitt.</p>

<p>Where I live, we call that a <em>BUZZARD</em> but the more traditional term is a vulture (or turkey vulture). And in FL, believe it or not, that nasty bird is actually a <em>protected species</em>!</p>