Spotted in a Minnesota parking lot (1 Viewer)

[Kimberg]

Today in St. Paul, Minnesota (US), I saw this gorgeous bird and I’m not sure what it was. It flew in my direction, and seemed pretty large. My best guess on wingspan is about 3-4 feet, but I’m a terrible judge. It perched on a lamp post, and I was able to a couple of quick pictures but they’re not very clear. I’ve spent way too much time online trying to identify it. Looks like a white tailed kite to me, but I can’t find a definitive answer to whether they’re found in MN. Mississippi kite, maybe, but from the pictures I'm finding the coloring and banding looks different.

Any thoughts?

 

[Butty]

Welcome to BF.
Can't see it adequately, but it looks ok for immature red-tailed hawk - they do exactly what we see it doing and what you've described it did.

 

[THE_FERN]

Not identifiable by me at least. However I can see why you think it could be white-tailed kite (I don't think it is)

 

[AveryBartels]

Looks more Buteo-like to me rather than Kite-like. I would concur with Butty that it appears to be an immature Red-tailed.

 

[raymie]

Red-tailed Hawk.