I just saw a large, red headed FL bird with a grey body. What is it?
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I live in Tampa, Florida near a lake and just saw four huge (over 3ft tall) grey birds with vibrant red heads. Each were in pairs of two about 1 mile apart from one another.
I couldn’t identify them on any of the local wildlife sites and was wondering what they are.
Recently, I’ve seen several of them, always in pairs. When I drove by them today (it was a very narrow street), one opened his wings and his head was about level with my 4-Runner’s window. They have long legs, an egret-ish body, and a straight beak. The body has varying shades of grey and near the top of their red heads, there is a tuft of feathers that sticks out like a cowlick.
Any ideas?
Could it be a Sandhill Crane? I’ll bet it’s just beautiful!
http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/51/overview/Sandhill_Crane.aspx
In the link above you can also listen to the call, perhaps that might help if you’ve heard the call yourself.
good luck!