Can anyne help me ID a biiig bird in my garden?

[MrsD'ville mkII]

Hello,

I just wondered if anyone here who keeps birds might know what this is. I live in Herefordshire on the border with Powys, on high land in the middle of fields and woodland (yes, it is paradise!). While roaming the house trying to calm down the baby, I spotted two of the following walking along the edge of fields:

large white bird (thought it was a goose at first) with a peacock-style crest, hen-type feathers (ie a bit shaggy, not sleek - if it was a dog I would have called it long-haired) and a deep black end to its tail. The tail hung down rather than sticking up like a chicken's tail and was a fan-shape, like a raptor. They didn't move like chickens particularly. They were quite bold, spooking a baby rabbit (not hard) which ran for its life in six different directions while they just strolled on. They didn't make any noises.

I've never seen anything like it. Does anyone have any idea what it is? I've looked in our book, I've googled, but no luck. Would be fascinated to know what it is.

Thanks.

[JulieSherris]

Hi Mrs D.... can it be that these are white peafowl?
http://peacockgirl.tripod.com/Peafowl_V ... hitex.html

Maybe they've wandered away from home somewhere??

[MrsD'ville mkII]

I don't think so, these birds were a bit chunkier and had a good lick of back on their tails. The tails didn't trail, weren't long, but did hang downwards.

I'm very curious to know what they were!

[StripyPixieSocks]

Was it one of these? http://uk.images.search.yahoo.com/searc ... eb&fr=moz2

I know they're not native to the UK but they might have escaped from somewhere perhaps?

[MrsD'ville mkII]

No, they were much bulkier birds than that, but thanks for trying! I'm totally flummoxed!

[StripyPixieSocks]

I was about to say maybe they were albino whateverthehelltheyarebirds but two together is a bit odd.

It is migrating season for alot of birds though maybe it was just something exotic stopping off for a breather and a coffee or something

I'm really curious now lol

Was it a Silver Pheasant? http://www.flickr.com/photos/stavenn/2300732175/

Could have been a mutation of that as there are lots of varying whitenesses of them on Google

Or Muscovy Ducks? They can be pretty white, have a funny straggly look and are large but could also have a black / raptor-esque tail: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eagle99/144921268/ or http://www.flickr.com/photos/aasgier/3299793591/

[Millymollymandy]

White stork?

[MrsD'ville mkII]

Too small for a stork and not spindly enough. Quite familiar with storks as DH's family comes from Alsace, where the national bird is a stork! The pheasant tail is all wrong and we have zillions of pheasants around so very familiar with the shape.

The Muscovy Duck is the closest so far. I'm wondering if from a distance their moptops might have been what I thought was a crest, and perhaps the tail was blacker than I remember, but these birds didn't waddle. I'll ask DD's violin teacher today, he's a birder and might know. Whatever they were, they aren't round here normally.

[pol]

Could they have been egrets? I know almost nothing about birds, so apologies if that's way off the mark, only it took me a while to identify big white birds near my mum's house in Devon.... and bingo - egrets!

[SamBee]

Haha, this is exciting, a strange bird in your garden. I look forward to you finding out. Shame it wasn't a pelican.
My only guess is a white guinea fowl?

[Annpan]

Try the RSPB bird identifier... its really good and might help (google it, I can't be bothered putting in a link)