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  • Horned Owl!

    they can look huge when in flight.

  • Judging from its outline and the brown-banded tail, I think it's a red-shouldered hawk. Wingspan must be a lot less than 8'.

  • Grey owl or horned owl

  • defo an owl of some kind, because of the fullness of the wings. awesome film, the best we have are red kites in uk

  • It is a great horned owl! The closest I have EVER came to finding one other than hearing them was finding a down feather to one of them. Nice capture!

  • Almost positive it's a Great Horned Owl. Extremely elusive and difficult to catch a glimpse of while occupying most of the US. Nice catch!

  • holy crap!

  • harpy eagle?

  • Wait til you see the REALLY big oes!

  • Those are not maple trees and that is just an owl.

  • Thats an Owl. Your measuring of the branches doesn't work, the leaves on them kind of gives it away.

  • @xH2S8x The leaves are Maple averaging 6" to 10" Span. The biggest leave ever from those trees measured 11.9"

    Those trees are about 50-60ft tall

    watch?v=-tkYCy-l99o

    A 1 MIN 50 SEC.

  • @xH2S8x ....Hmmmn, I'am 42 yrs old and between I and my kin in two counties, we own about (surely it's more...but I have trekked each mile of "said" property) 250 acres....covered in maples. The leaves do get large, very. But if you pause at 0.51 appr. the largest spread of the wings is varying in the time frame tween 0.51 and 0.53 but anywhoo...It's the top of barren trees in cold weather. However...take note of the squirrel's nest to the left. Or is it a squirrel's nest. Bwhua ha ha ha. :)

  • owl

  • HOLY CRAP ALERT THE ARMED TROOPS, THIS MUST BE A NEW SPECIES OF SOME SORT OF DEMONIC ENORMOUS BIRD AND NOT JUST ANOTHER IDIOT WITH A CAMERA!!!!.... oh wait....

  • 0.34 What a spectacle

  • @orrinaleron Definitaly an owl. Turkey Vultures have a different wing pattern on their feathers.

  • turkey buzzard

  • owl. Boy, that would be one cool thing to see. those birds are prehistoric.

  • The tip of the wings look a little broad to be a vulture.

  • I know it's OwlMan! xD ;)

  • thats an owl. You can tell by the shape of the wing. An 8 foot wingspan on an owl is not uncommon.

  • Smallville/10

    On a similar note, holy shit on a branch!

  • theres a bird i saw in canada today, it has like a 8 to 9ft wingspan, its fucking huge. in toronto.

  • @rd2fst there is no white on tail. it's sky through the feather. and it's their not there. how can i ever believe you when you can't grasp english? good try. still a vulture.

  • great video 

  • turkey vulture for sure. no doubt whatsoever.

  • @syer5437 turkey vultures dont have white on there tails

  • "this branch is 12 feet" oh did you climb up there with a tape measure?

  • This could be a horned owl, the wing spread looks like one.

  • @twasbrillig33 I have to agree the way th ewings curve and the width of it's body. I grew up in Illinois on a farm,and have seen a lot of owls! I also once had a pet of a wild red tail hawk for a winter. His wing was iced in a snow storm so we called him stormy and he lived w/my horse in her barn. He had quite a wing span too! Mind you Illinois is a hot bed for the Thunderbird sightings but I never saw one. This unfortunatley looks very much OWL to me... Great Vidin any case :) Thanks

  • Oh my god

  • its beautiful

  • yeah i would agree that in flight it seems to be some sort of owl - the wide wings are the clue for me, although the posture seems odd, positioning itself less upright in the tree for any owl i have ever seen...the giant eagle owl of south africa can achieve a 2m wingspan - perhaps an escaped pet?

  • where was this video taken ? This has to be a an adult Red tail Hawk ....atleast 10 to 15 years old ... beautiful ...

  • It's a bird.

  • i seen one like that a long time ago it was giant.

  • sorry guys but i think that person egsachuraited a bit

  • The Wings R So Wide

  • Owl

  • Mothmans son

  • That was an owl of some sort. You can tell because of the rounded feather ends.

  • its a Owl have seen many around where i live beautiful birds they are

  • its a Owl have seen many around where i live beautiful birds they are

  • 0:44

  • With the shape of the wings and pattern on the tail, I'ld say It is a great horned owl

    I have personally had one in the road in front of my toyota truck that when he spread his wings It dwarfed the width of the truck. cool video though.

  • It seems to me that a bird that size wouldbe pretty heavy but when it takes off the branch hardly moves and it stays in the same position,wouldn't the bird hadbeen heavy enough to flex the branch down while sitting there then come back up when it took off?The branch didn't look very big.It just seems there would've been alot more branch movement.I'm no expert on this kind of thing that's why I'm asking.

  • That's an owl.

  • we have a birdzilla at my high school

  • FAAAAAAA LAAAAAAA COME Don't ask.....

  • Thunder bird is a thunder being. You cant see it because it's in the thunder clouds....

  • THUNDERBIRDD!

  • Thunderbird! No, not the Ford I mean the Cryptozoological thunderbird!

  • I have lived in Calif. all my life I have seen golden eagles a number of times (although rear) this defiantly looks like a golden eagle, I am not an expert, just an admirer. These birds live predominantly in Europe and in the western US. ....MY opinion is this bird most likely migrated south from the pacific north west, to a winter area (some use the mid-west states to winter in. Wikipedia) maybe he missed that last turn in Albuquerque. hehehehe PS the female is quite a bit larger than the male

  • Comment removed

  • This is the Kikiyaon.

  • THUNDERBIRD! :D

  • We were never shown the distance from the "tree" tops to the ground. How tall are the trees, 6ft, 8, 10? More? prove it ! Oh, that's right you can't. next time don't be so selective in what areas you film, for so reason how tall those tree's/ bushes are was kept from us.

  • It's a great horned owl they are huge.

  • thats thunderbird

  • That'd be scary to see that in real life..

  • Comment removed

  • big ass bird

  • gaint owl

    

  • It's definately not a Great Horned Owl. Look at the head and feather markings, it appears to be an outsized first year (female) Red Tailed Hawk. Some Red Tails can become quite large. It perches like a Red Tailed and takes off like one.

  • i think its an owl and yes an owl does travel day and night trust me i seen it.

  • LOL what a load of shit 12ft between the 2 branches? XD

  • woah that is huge!! There have been numerous sightings of a large creepy looking bird where I am from, I often wonder who could be called to investigate. Good video!

  • @mistihiya33 A birdwatcher might be called in to investigate, however they would likely be unimpressed by a Red Tailed Hawk.

  • uhmmm why didn't you keep following it w/your camera???!! Something so HUGE 'n unusual would have warranted to follow it as long as possible~I just don't get this part~I was traveling up a rural road that leads eventually into residential locals~As I was passing a vry small pond close by the road I saw a bird take flight from a branch, It's wingspand looked to be better than 6ft~wat struck me more odd is that the coloring reminded me of bluejays~Great capture thanks for sharing ur video w/us!

  • Doubt a massive bird would be able to sit on that flimsy tree.

  • @Skull666Bones birds= very light 

  • Thats not a bird thats a monster

  • Great horned owl?

  • In my opinion it is Bubo bubo

  • @PVNIO bubo bubo?

  • @draxdagreat

    Eurasian Eagle-owl

  • @draxdagreat

    Eurasian Eagle-owl

  • Given the size - as very large - you could consider the ferruginous hawk as a possible suspect. They are the largest hawk in north america.

  • The outline appears too angular to be an owl

  • I have seen trumpeter swans in Minnesota and British Columbia and I understand their wing spans can be as much as ten feet.

  • dam now im hungry for KFC

  • @chainlink1 i have to gree with you i beleave that to be an owl looking how it siting on the limb and the round wing tips

  • Nothing special...just a typical hawk you'd see most anyplace. Distance between person and bird plus misjudging the spacing between branches, that's all.

    Still, it's cool being close enough to a raptor to get a good look at one!

  • @jac2623 - the coloration is an important consideration, as is head shape. I don't think it's either an owl or an eagle. The tailfeather coloration can most clearly be seen, as I pointed out before, at 1:01. Still seems hawk-like to me.

  • @rpoupore You are right. At the 1:01 mark you can see the banded tail. This rules out turkey vultures. Red tails don't have black bands on the end of the tail and the wing tips are dark. I think red-shouldered is the best bet if it is a hawk, and I think you are correct that it is.

    The red-shouldered hawk has a wingspan of 38-42 inches, which is much less than the 8' claimed in the video. 

    I think the confusion about the size is related to distance and the angle of viewing the bird.

  • @jac2623 - we're cool, then? Thanks, Ralph

  • @jac2623 - Strangely, researching is not exclusive to you. I found the wingspan in an educational presentation. I could not confirm it from other sources. I'll concede that the 10' may be overstated.

  • If you freeze the video when the bird is descending & the wings are open, you can see that the under carriage is white. This color rules out a black vulture. The Sibley Guide to Birds shows the view from the ground of the diurnal raptors on pages 104-105. The primary field mark on this bird is the light or white primary feathers (wing tips) along with the light feathers along the entire wing. The only bird shown in Sibley that is marked this way is the turkey vulture.

  • Large bird is an owl IMO rounded wing tips....very cool

  • Great Grey Owl.

  • Looks more like a hawk by striping pattern in tail feathers at 1:01. Also sharp head shape of hawk family. Possibly red-shouldered hawk. Some hawks have wingspans up to 10 feet.

  • @rpoupore Where does this stuff come from? Does anyone ever bother to look for a reference on wingspans for bird species? Please offer proof of your statement that "Some hawks have wingspans up to 10 feet." The golden eagle has a wingspan of 7 - 7.5 feet. Eagles, in case you don't know, are much larger than hawks.

  • looks like an owl, big fat wings and the head's too big to be a vulture

    whatever it is, it's freakin' huge

  • Something about the shape and patterns of the wings reminds me of an owl...perhaps a very large great horned owl? I really wouldn't know.

  • Oh wow that looks like a ThunderHawk!

  • Not your usual video, but still interesting.

    I was looking out a parking deck once in my city. I saw a very large rat run from one bush toward another. Out of nowhere, a very large bird (it looked to be as large as the one in your video) swooped down, grabbed the rat and disappeared into the trees far away. The rat didn't stand a chance! Nature is amazing.

    So, if we have a bigger wing span on our windmills, we can generate more power, right? LOL!

  • @conicEllipse :-) WE ACTUALLY HAD A SIMILAR EXPERIENCE. We trapped a rat in a DIY humane barrel, took it to the woods and released it. The rat made a u-turn and ran back into the container? So we released again, it sprinted into the woods and a large bird grabbed it and flew off. I felt sad and amazed all at the same time. The easy rat trap will be a future video. We took care of an infestation from a bad neighbor, all catch an release.

  • Great capture .. wild turkey vulture?

  • Keep the Chihuahua in the house! If you have one that is. Large bird, scavenger, so lots of soaring looking for lunch.  What brought them to the area?

  • Tis a freakin flyin dawg ! !!

  • AN UFOOOO!!!! OMG!!! lol just kidding dan!!

  • Fake! :]

  • Watch your children... that could take off a 5 year old.

  • @btigtime2 it could , but its highly unlikely. that is in fact more myth than anything.

  • It looks like one of the many eagles we have around here in the Pacific Northwest. Many of the goldens as well as the bald get to be huge!

  • have you sent this to cryptozoology uk?? they are pretty good at iding birds

  • It could also be a turkey vulture. I seen one of those flying around before and it was just massive. Very rare bird.

  • Turkey Vultures are very common where i'm from, they are big (6-8 ft wingspan) but that's not one. They're ugly and not graceful like that.

  • Vultures, both turkey & black, are quite common all over North America. The current estimated population of turkey vultures is 4.5 million.

  • The bird could be an owl. Some are rediculously big, beautiful and magnificent but hardly seen in the day, or at night for that matter. Its a real treat to see any owl.

  • Very cool...

  • Take us up where we belong ....

  • i saw a hawk or owl im not smart on i pole 2 weeks ago along a highway ur lucky btw nice cam

    ☆★☆★☆

  • we have many Golden Eagles living in the foothills of So Cal.. truely an amazing bird.

  • Snowy owl from the north would be my guess.

  • To me, it looked like a booted eagle, definately not a bald eagle because the head is not white, or some kind of hawk, but im not good with hawks

  • A bald eagle does not get a white head until it is 4-5 years old. Immature balds have dark heads and are often mistaken for golden eagles. They are just as large as the ones with white heads, but are immature in the sense that they are not ready to mate even though they are fully grown.

  • Looks like a bald eagle to me but I am no expert. Based on what looks to be that white head and large size. I have seen these birds in the West where they are more numerous. Skagit Valley in Washington State is one place like that.

  • nice

  • Raptor Center also has ID drawings by silhouette. Judging by that (tail especially), and the size, this is either a hawk or an eagle, and NOT a vulture or owl.

  • a sparrow?

  • The Raptor Center at UC Davis keeps measurements. The largest NA raptors, by wingspan, they list are:

    Condor-118"

    Bald Eagle-89

    Golden eagle-87

    Turkey Vulture-71

    great grey owl-60

  • So, come on, Dan--ya gotta identify it!

    The only North American birds with an 8 ft wingspan that I can think of are the Ca condor and the golden eagle. That had a light belly--so it's not a golden eagle. As far as I know, neither species can be expected in FL.

    You should be able to consult a field guide and identify the bird. The lighting works against an easy identification from the video, unfortunately.

    I saw a golden eagle once--they're AMAZINGLY huge!

  • @GetMeThere1 I think it was an oversized female Red-shouldered Hawk, they are usually a lot smaller.

  • @GREENPOWERSCIENCE I have lots of red tales around my house, this is WAY to big.....

  • @GetMeThere1

    at :34-:35 you can see the pattern on its tail as it fans out....as far as the measurements the trees don't look too old to me it looks like a nice size hawk...the red tails get HUGE on the west coast in california in the Contra Costa County The Turky vultures get huge too Near Mount Diable we've seen giant birds of these species many times One time mountain bike riding on a full moon we saw something some kind of bird in the middle of the trail as it flew away we saw 18+ wings

  • I see these hawks all the time down here. Most are a 6 ft wingspan. I have seen owls here with 8 foot wingspans, but that is a hawk. Flying in the sky you would never think they are so big. But when you see one swoop down after a squirrel you quickly see there massive size. They will take away small dogs and cats.

  • @nasanction Sorry, but there are no owls in North America with an 8' wingspan. In fact, there are no owls anywhere that big. The largest owls in the world have a 2 metre span and that would be 78" or 6'6".

    The video response shows black vultures and that was my initial impression. It is a very large bird, but it does not have an 8' wingspan.

    I have birded all over the world & I've seen a lot of large birds, but only condors & really large eagles get upwards of eight feet.

  • All though I was unable to stretch a tape measure across this owl, I do know it is the largest owl I have ever seen. I hear him almost nightly and he has the deepest and loudest hoot I have ever heard. I often hear him as far away as estimated 1/4 mile. Most of the hawks down here have a 6 foot wing span. This is not uncommon.

  • intresting

  • shouldn't it be ever instead of every in the title?

  • maybe its a thunderbird. I saw these on the show monsterquest.... lol scary bird! i think its an alien.....

  • that show is such bs. lol

  • shoot the dam thing

    its a abomination

    lol

  • Cool footage!

  • looks like an eagle!

  • condor?

  • BIG BIRD!

  • yeah my first guess was an owl too. Just not sure which.

  • looks exactically like an owl

  • thats what i thought. i dont see a distinct eagle face, probably an owl, and its probably regular sized

  • Great Horned Owl maybe?

  • I think we are coming into migration season and I thinki thats an eagle so beautiful had once once swoop down over my car .And snatch a very large rabbit from the road side with very little effort and gone just that fast.

  • it's big enough to pick up a kid too..

  • Comment removed

  • Interesting video. kind of nice validation as well. I was watching the tree line about an 8th of a mile from my house. and saw the largest single wing of a bird pass through my line of sight. But I questioned what I had saw. I'm in Tampa too, I'm sure this is the same bird. This happened only a few days ago before you posted this.

    -D

  • Pidgeot

  • A 17 year old small dog(10-12 lbs) vanished from my sisters backyard a few months ago. My brother-in-law had seen a very large owl with white in his feathers swoop down near him one night before it happen.

  • You need to come up to NE ohio. You would not believe what comes into the woods on my property. I watched a Nat. Geo script one day from my kitchen (9 contiguous ribbon windows - full view) when a huge hawk dove down and picked up this fat squirrel and tried to fly away with it -- the drama lasted 10-15 minutes . The squirrel got away but those 2+ inch talons probably did some real damage.

  • Beautiful bird, looks a lot like the hawks or eagles we are getting a bit north of you in Georgia.

    I've been trying to get close to them to take videos but for some reason they don't seem to positively respond to "pretty birdy! here birdy birdy"

    I'll keep trying

  • With a bird like that, is there an occasional small dog or cat that comes up missing from time to time?

  • WOW!! awesome!

  • Golden Eagle.... or One of our turkey buzzards that roam around FL.

    Either way it a big bird....

  • I don't know, that looks allot like a Hawk. They can get massive.

  • personally i have seen bigger yes it was a turkey vulture i think but holy crap that is a huge bird

  • Holy hell, that is huge! Beautiful! Can't believe you caught that on tape!

  • Nice catch! I'd say Owl. One really big Owl.

  • BAB. Big ass bird. Seriously though, we have some birds here in Utah that are that big. You often see several together around a carcass or something. Quite impressive. Around here they're called Turkey Buzzards.

  • amasing!

  • can anyone say " born in nuclear waste"!!! lol

    thats crazy!

  • Here in NY, the bird watchers are saying that there has been a definate shift in migration paterns. Never seen one that large.

  • I believe its a golden eagle

  • @boydt08 Oooooh shiny,

  • Five Stars*****

    By the silhouette of the head in it's perch position and from the feathered wing span as it takes flight it appears to be an owl.

  • Looks like a Florida turkey vulture.

  • barn owl

  • Thats huge !!!

  • Maybe an eagle owl? for comparison: watch?v=LA6XSrM0V_0

  • ya I thought it looks lots like an owl too, it even seems to have ears/horns lik