My computer brought up these photos I took on this date in 2009 at William O'Brien State Park in MN. I'm not a birder, but I was always curious what bird this was. Any experts able to put my curiosity to rest?

could be a hawk of some kind? was it making any noise? did you see it take off? did it poop on your truck?

Looks like some sort of pigeon breed.

Carrier Pigeon, fancy breed.

Mocha: "did it poop on your truck?"

Ha! Thankfully it wasn't my truck. :)

awbrown: "Carrier Pigeon, fancy breed."

Thanks Mschi772 and awbrown. I wasn't even thinking about fancy pigeons. That got me googling, and I think I narrowed it down to a Yellow Baldhead English Trumpeter Pigeon.

I wonder how it got to the park...can't imagine a domesticated pigeon surviving long in the wild.

Thanks again the help. The collective BWCA brain is pretty smart. :)

Yes, pigeon.

I think this will shed more light on the subject.

eagle98mn: "

Mocha: "did it poop on your truck?"

Ha! Thankfully it wasn't my truck. :)

awbrown: "Carrier Pigeon, fancy breed."

Thanks Mschi772 and awbrown. I wasn't even thinking about fancy pigeons. That got me googling, and I think I narrowed it down to a Yellow Baldhead English Trumpeter Pigeon.


I wonder how it got to the park...can't imagine a domesticated pigeon surviving long in the wild.


Thanks again the help. The collective BWCA brain is pretty smart. :)"

Obviously the carrier pigeon was released from the BWCA with an emergency message to someones family at home requesting an immediate medical evacuation but the bird smelled the sunflower seeds in the pocket of a Minnesota Twins fan and was easily distracted from it's intended route. Hopefully the sender did not succumb to his injuries and has learned to rely on satellite electronics next trip....

nooneuno: "

eagle98mn: "

Mocha: "did it poop on your truck?"

Ha! Thankfully it wasn't my truck. :)

awbrown: "Carrier Pigeon, fancy breed."

Thanks Mschi772 and awbrown. I wasn't even thinking about fancy pigeons. That got me googling, and I think I narrowed it down to a Yellow Baldhead English Trumpeter Pigeon.



I wonder how it got to the park...can't imagine a domesticated pigeon surviving long in the wild.



Thanks again the help. The collective BWCA brain is pretty smart. :)"

Obviously the carrier pigeon was released from the BWCA with an emergency message to someones family at home requesting an immediate medical evacuation but the bird smelled the sunflower seeds in the pocket of a Minnesota Twins fan and was easily distracted from it's intended route. Hopefully the sender did not succumb to his injuries and has learned to rely on satellite electronics next trip...."

Smarty pants......I wonder if our carrier pigeon friend is listening.

In any event that is one cool looking bird........It looks sort of plump, I wonder what it tastes like ;-)

Rock dove, fancy breed

mastertangler: "In any event that is one cool looking bird........It looks sort of plump, I wonder what it tastes like ;-) "

I don’t know, but one of my parent’s neighbors raises them as food.

mastertangler: "

In any event that is one cool looking bird........It looks sort of plump, I wonder what it tastes like ;-) "

tastes similar to loon and bald eagles

Dances with Sheep: "

mastertangler: "


In any event that is one cool looking bird........It looks sort of plump, I wonder what it tastes like ;-) "

tastes similar to loon and bald eagles"

Birds of prey aren't on the approved list of birds which are OK to eat. Not sure about the loon. I know any buzzards or birds which eat carrion are also not Creator approved.

In any event that is one beautiful looking bird, I like it.

Its sort of hard to kill and eat Pheasants and Grouse and Quail etc. They are just so darn attractive it seems a shame to blast away. But on the other hand, they taste just as good as they look............... tough call I guess. I thought about raising quail but I know they would become pets and it would be hard to wring their little necks.

I know I have shot several carrier pigeons that were flying with the barn birds.

One only has to look at the leg bands.

eagle98mn: "My computer brought up these photos I took on this date in 2009 at William O'Brien State Park in MN. I'm not a birder, but I was always curious what bird this was. Any experts able to put my curiosity to rest?



"

Ptarmigan

riverrunner: "I know I have shot several carrier pigeons that were flying with the barn birds.


One only has to look at the leg bands. "

You most likely shot Homing Pigeons.
I'm getting technical again, I raced Homing Pigeons for a few years and my relatives still do.

Quote" The term carrier pigeon is often used, especially in newspaper and magazine articles, for a homing pigeon or racing pigeon that carries messages. Many pigeon fanciers (particularly homer men and homer women) consider this to be a misnomer because the term is outdated and originally referred to the ancestors of present-day Old English carriers. These "carrier pigeons" were formerly used to carry messages before the modern homing pigeon was developed in the 1800s (initially in Belgium and Britain), but is today strictly an exhibition pigeon or show pigeon that has mostly lost its strong homing instinct. The "carrier pigeon" was also one of the breeds used to develop the modern homing pigeon and therefore does have some "carrier blood" in it.[1] End of Quote"

Here is an interesting read on the passanger pigion (A different bird) that went extint due to humans.

Cher Ami delivers messages that saves troops in WW1

Clearly that is an African swallow.

Grizzlyman: "Clearly that is an African swallow. "

As a employee of the United States Fish and WIldlife Service, I will have to disagree.

It appears to be a European Swallow, and its unladen speed is roughly 24 miles per hour.

Quote.
In the end, it's concluded that the airspeed velocity of a (European) unladen swallow is about 24 miles per hour or 11 meters per second.
End of Quote.

LindenTree3: "

Grizzlyman: "Clearly that is an African swallow. "

As a employee of the United States Fish and WIldlife Service, I will have to disagree.


It appears to be a European Swallow, and its unladen speed is roughly 24 miles per hour.


Quote.
In the end, it's concluded that the airspeed velocity of a (European) unladen swallow is about 24 miles per hour or 11 meters per second.
End of Quote."

European Swallow, EUROPEAN SWALLOW! For god sakes man, although a definitive answer would of course require further measurements, published species-wide averages of wing length and body mass, initial Strouhal estimates based on those averages and cross-species comparisons, the Lund wind tunnel study of birds flying at a range of speeds, and revised Strouhal numbers based on that study all lead me to estimate that the average cruising airspeed velocity of an unladen European Swallow is roughly 11 meters per second, or 24 miles an hour this particular swallow was not moving at 11 meters per second it was sitting still on the roof of a personal conveyance mode of transportation which proves beyond a scintilla of doubt that it was indeed the white hooded swallow of Borneo......

Are you suggesting that coconuts migrate?

thlipsis29: "Are you suggesting that coconuts migrate?"

all nuts migrate many of them to BWCA.com in the winter months...

nooneuno:
initial Strouhal estimates based on those averages and cross-species comparisons, the Lund wind tunnel study"

This particular swallow was not moving at 11 meters per second it was sitting still on the roof of a personal conveyance mode of transportation which proves beyond a scintilla of doubt that it was indeed the white hooded swallow of Borneo......"

White Hooded Swallow of Borneo, are you SERIOUS?
The Lund Wind Tunnel study is under high scrutiny by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
You should buy one of those bird clocks that chime a different song every hour before posting something this preposterous. :-)

Proceeded only by the faraway Greenland Swallow, the White Hooded Swallow of Borneo is the third-largest swallow in the world. That’s a somewhat surprising accolade for this low-key South East Asian bird with an institutionally split/forked tail.
It has been mistaken by many birders to be the European Swallow, but scientific studies by Strouhal measuring their wing and flight feather lengths, have differianted the two species.
Furthur studies conducted by ornithologists using the Lund Wind Tunnel have shown that the White Hooded Swallow of Borneo's unladen speed is a meager 22 mph, compared to the unladen speed of the European Swallow which is 24 mph, or 11 meters per second.

mastertangler: "...
In any event that is one cool looking bird........It looks sort of plump, I wonder what it tastes like ;-) "

I bet it would be delicious. I love pigeon. The only reason that we even have pigeons in North America is because Europeans brought them over for food...

Mad_Angler: "

mastertangler: "...
In any event that is one cool looking bird........It looks sort of plump, I wonder what it tastes like ;-) "

I bet it would be delicious. I love pigeon. The only reason that we even have pigeons in North America is because Europeans brought them over for food..."

My Cajun grandmother could fix some delicious pigeon. She would simmer for hours smothered in onions. It was fall-off-the-bone tender. Boyhood memories.

Eating Pigeon? Who knew? Never really thought about it much.