Tally, I think I posted in the wrong forum yesterday. I didn't know we had any bird watchers here. I can recognize hummers, cardinals, robins, blue jays, and mockingbirds, but the rest I have to search through books to I.D. Would you or anyone here be interested in writing an article about bird watching? Here is a link that might be useful: Cross post looking for bird watching article

Nope...not rare, just beautiful. These guys are amazing flyers. They nest in most of Florida

You had it right the first time! It is an Osprey. The facial markings are unique to this species. A White-tailed Kite is significantly smaller than an Osprey (15 in versus 23 in) and, whereas it has black around its eyes, does not have this heavy dark line over the eye and down the neck (as the Osprey has). Also, that long neck is Osprey (WTKI has a short stubby neck). The all dark wings leading down to a dark tail also differ from the WTKI. And look at the size of that bill! That is for eating fish (and the WTKI has a smaller hooked bill for insects and small mammals). I also see the Osprey's characteristic yellow iris here (WTKI has red). The slight markings on the chest of this Osprey indicate it may be a juvenile. That may be what looked different about it. Glad to have a raptor question to answer! It's been slow around here!

Smaller hawks often harrass larger hawks, especially if the larger ones enter their territory. Our bird hospital received an injured Red-tail a number of years ago, and the person who brought us the bird witnessed the action: The Red-tail (during migration) was foolish enough to fly through the territory of resident Peregrines in NYC. One of the Peregrines hit the Red-tail; the fleeing hawk hit a building, fell into the street and was run over by a car. Luckily - amazingly - the hawk was just shocky and bruised, and we released it after a few weeks of R & R. Another story I heard was from a hawk bander, who was at his station on fall day, waiting for a bird to come to his lure. He saw a Golden eagle in the distance; then a Red-tail flew up to the eagle to harrass it. The Golden wheeled over onto her side, grabbed the hawk, and that was the end of the hawk.