canberrabirds

Bird ID from wing undersides?

To:
Subject: Bird ID from wing undersides?
From: "Paul T." <>
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2012 10:06:27 +1100
Howdy All,

Probably something obvious, but something I've not seen before and not quite sure where to look to find out what bird it is....... I was attracted by the sound of a frog croaking (that's the easiest description) then realised that it was coming from above. A bird was wheeling about above me, with a comparatively (well to me at least) quite wide wing span in relation to it's body length. Against the sky it looked black, but could have been any dark colour, but there was a distinct large white oval on the underside of each wing (the narrower ends of the oval were towards the front and backs of the wings) about a third of the way in from the wingtip. I watched it for a couple of minutes and it made it's repetitive frog croaking noise a number of times but no other sounds. I just have no idea how I go about identifying something from it's underwings when I have no idea even where to start looking?

I'm guessing that this will likely be an obvious one to most of you who are familiar with identifying birds on the wing. I'm expecting it to be something common, but the croaking sound is not something I've ever heard before. I really did think there was some sort of frog about.

Thanks.

Cheers.

Paul T.
Higgins, ACT

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