This month I'd like to talk about some of the easiest birds to see in the East Bay - the soaring birds. These are birds that spend a lot of time out in the open, whether soaring over grassland, chaparral, woodland, or near water. While these large birds are soaring, you can see them from great distances, and you usually get a long look, so they are common to see and easy to identify. The most common bird you'll see in the open grassy hills of the East Bay is the Turkey Vulture. This large dark bird has silver-gray flight feathers on the trailing edges of the underside of its wings.
Vultures soar for hours on end, looking for dead animals to feed on.
The next most common soarer in our area is the Red-Tailed Hawk. Smaller than a vulture, it has dark feathers on its back and lighter plumage below. This hawk, like most, is usually soaring around looking for rodents, though a big Red-Tail will gladly take a hare or a small gopher snake for dinner. A less common hawk in our area is the Cooper's Hawk. This smaller bird has a brown back with brown and white mottled underparts as a juvenile, and slate back and mottled rusty-white underparts as an adult.